Shocking scenes as family caught up in the middle of Haydock brawl

A woman with a toddler was among those caught up in a fight that broke out on one of Haydock's biggest days of the jumps season.

The mass brawl on Saturday occurred just before the final race on the Grand National Trial card and at one stage 40 or 50 people were involved.

The incident happened in front of the Centenary Grandstand and spilled over on to the members' lawn, surrounding the woman who was holding her child.

A bench was knocked over in the fight, which broke out next to the rails bookmakers.

A man working for one of the layers said: "There were about 40 to 50 people involved and it got pretty nasty. It's just drunk people but someone got a right pasting in front of us, and there was beer flying everywhere.

"It seems to be happening a lot and the security needs to be better. There needs to be a police presence."

Another eyewitness said: "A man bumped into another man and then it all kicked off. It escalated from there and people came from all directions."

A Haydock spokesman said: "We take a zero tolerance position on anti-social behaviour. The perpetrators were ejected at the time and we are continuing to work with the police on this matter."

The course was not in a position to comment on any arrests or on injuries sustained.

Other brawls to mar racing

Police seek witnesses to 50-man brawl at Goodwood

Ten charged with with violent disorder in Goodwood brawl following dozen arrests

Fighting again mars Saturday racing with incident at Ascot

Racegoers ejected from Hexham after fight breaks out

The fight is the first notable incident of crowd trouble on a British course this year after a troubled 2018.

Racing had to deal with a major crisis at the start of the turf Flat season after a mass brawl marred Goodwood's opening fixture in May.

Three people were taken to hospital and police were called to the racecourse when fighting broke out after the sixth race.

There were similar scenes at Ascot the following week, forcing racecourses to deploy extra security and sniffer dogs in an attempt to curb the drugs and alcohol-fuelled violence.

And several racegoers were ejected from Hexham last June after fighting broke out at the end of a Saturday meeting. Photographs of that incident showed a group of men exchanging blows on one of the lawns.

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