{"id":180914,"date":"2025-12-12T22:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/180914\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T22:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:45:07","slug":"alexandra-park-crash-harness-racing-driver-nathan-williamson-seriously-hurt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/180914\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandra Park crash: Harness racing driver Nathan Williamson seriously hurt"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not immediately clear if the married father was struck by following racers, but a Hato Hone St John Ambulance spokeswoman said they were called to an incident at the central Auckland race track at 8.14pm.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We sent] one ambulance and one rapid response unit to the scene. Our crews assessed and treated one patient who was transported to Auckland City Hospital in a serious condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williamson, who is in his mid-30s, is part of a high-profile horse training and racing family<\/a>, including parents Phil and Bev and younger brothers Matthew and Brad.<\/p>\n

Phil Williamson told the Herald his son had suffered head injuries, but the exact details were not yet clear.<\/p>\n

\"NathanNathan Williamson, pictured at right, in 2017 with, from left, father Phil Williamson and brothers Brad Williamson and Matt Williamson.<\/p>\n

Williamson\u2019s wife Katie was at his side in hospital and they were on their way to Auckland today, his parents said.<\/p>\n

Williamson\u2019s horse, Captain\u2019s Mistress, was okay, Bev Williamson said.<\/p>\n

\"NathanNathan Williams pictured driving Springbank Richard in the Inter Dominion NZ Metro Harness event in 2011. File photo \/ Greg Bowker<\/p>\n

A post on the Nathan Williamson Racing<\/a> Facebook page this morning thanked supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for all the messages of support for Nathan and family. An update will be posted when available.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post had received almost 200 reactions and more than 20 comments by 9.30am.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur prayers are with Nathan. Hoping for a quick recovery for our champion trainer\u201d, wrote one supporter.<\/p>\n

\"NathanNathan Williamson can be seen lying prone on the Alexandra Park race track after the seat on his cart appeared to break during a harness racing event last night. Photo \/ Screengrab from video<\/p>\n

In a video posted to the Track Chat NZ Facebook page soon after last night\u2019s incident, viewers were told of \u201chorrific scenes here at Alexandra Park in the Group 1 Queen of Hearts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ambulance officers [were] obviously with Nathan as soon as possible, getting the best care he can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain\u2019s Mistress had been caught \u201cwithout drama and was escorted off the track safely\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts are certainly with Nathan and everyone involved at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not immediately clear if the married father was struck by following racers, but a Hato Hone St…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,33215,3378,1558,52439,17400,3549,19552,18984,5504,71,89689,14046,10933,296,15220,36660,89505,111,139,69,8143,31472,31122,3512,7248,23419,213,292,22974,72725],"class_list":["post-180914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-alexandra","tag-appeared","tag-been","tag-cart","tag-collapse","tag-crash","tag-driver","tag-finish","tag-following","tag-from","tag-harness","tag-hurt","tag-injured","tag-into","tag-line","tag-metres","tag-nathan","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-park","tag-path","tag-racers","tag-racing","tag-seat","tag-seriously","tag-sports","tag-tipping","tag-track","tag-williamson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}