News Girl miraculously escapes uninjured from highway carnival

Duryea was returning home to his Corowa stables from Caulfield, towing a horse float with his talented filly News Girl aboard.

The accident happened near the Violet Town turnoff at approximately 5pm.

Stable employee Darren Mathieson was driving Duryea's Ford Territory at the time of the accident.

"There was a mini-cyclone that went across the freeway," Duryea said.

"We had just come over a bit of an incline and we had a B-double truck on the outside of us.

"About half-a-kilometre ahead of us a gum tree had been ripped out of the ground and was lying across the road. The truck driver did his best and veered to the outside as much as he could. But we had no choice and just had to plough through the gum tree doing about 70 km/h and hope for the best.

"With the tree was right across the road, there was no other option. It wasn't a little gum tree either, it was a big bugger."

Miraculously, there was no serious injury to the occupants or Duryea's stable star.

"We were lucky enough to get out the other side," he said.

"There was a young couple there who had pulled up because they had seen the tree fall. They had already rang 000 and said the police were five minutes away and the SES about ten.

"We got out and assessed the damage to the car and somehow it was still driveable.

"The filly was getting uptight and carrying on, so we didn't worry about waiting for the police to arrive and kept going.

"There was a fair bit of panel damage to the front on the vehicle and the side mirrors were also ripped off. The bottom of the float and the rotary whirly bird vents on the top of the float we also badly damaged.

"It was a miracle a branch didn't going through the front window of the float. If it had of, we would have been in dire trouble. It didn't go through the radiator either so we were able to get home.

"So the car got knocked around a fair bit but the filly was all right. My main priority was getting the filly home safe and sound."

Duryea said it was a dramatic end to a miserable day.

"When we got to Caulfield the weather turned nasty," he said.

"She didn't race as well as we had of hoped but there were a few excuses.

"It poured rain in the lead-up to her race and the wind at Caulfield was blowing a gale.

"Our intentions were to lead clearly but she got trapped outside the leading horses and then the apprentice jockey sat wide.

"So everything went wrong in the race and then everything went wrong on the way home as well.

"You could say it was just a bad day at the office."

News Girl was likely to return to Caulfield in a fortnight.

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