Swimmer, shopper and canteen gatecrasher: three quirky characters

Godolphin's Thunder Snow bids to take down the mighty Churchill in Saturday's Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh, three weeks after his Kentucky Derby antics that went viral.

Resembling a bucking bronco, Thunder Snow gave jockey Christophe Soumillon hell from the moment the gates opened, bouncing up and down and playing only a cameo role at Churchill Downs.

Before Thunder Snow's latest appearance on Saturday, we highlight three others with previous in hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons . . .

Click here to get connections' thoughts on Thunder Snow before the Irish 2,000 Guineas.

Three other quirks of equine nature . . .

Blue Warrior
The John Best-trained four-year-old, ahead of his debut on a bleak Wednesday night at Kempton in January 2009, broke through the stalls, then crashed through the barriers and wound up in the course's lake, in total darkness. Confusion reigned, not least for those watching at home, but he was eventually coaxed out by stalls handlers pretending they were from Baywatch. The episode rather put Blue Warrior off racing and on his only start at Lingfield the in-running Racing Post comment read: “Very green and soon well adrift, tailed off from halfway”.

Hungry horse: Rosamaria appears in the kitchen at Redcar, to the bewilderment of onlookers

Rosamaria
Only this week this four-year-old filly ended up in the stable lads’ canteen at Redcar after finishing fourth in a mile handicap. Obviously fed up with hay and fancying a refuel after her exertions, she made her way behind the counter, where her appearance was captured on video and shared on Twitter. Course manager Amy Fair reported: "What helped is that the ladies who run the kitchen work at a number of racecourses in Yorkshire and are comfortable with horses and know how to deal with them – they didn't panic."

Tantric Lady
In July 2014 the two-year-old was not content with finishing seventh in a Warwick maiden and decided her day needed livening up a bit. After unshipping David Probert, the town centre half a mile away was her destination, and the Alan McCabe-trained filly brought traffic and shoppers to a standstill. After Tantric Lady had been photographed outside Costa Coffee, McCabe’s wife Marie said: "Tantric Lady would like to assure everyone she's fine – just fancied a latte and a browse of the M&S sale while she was in town."