{"id":313821,"date":"2026-03-05T06:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/313821\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T06:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:23:08","slug":"hamilton-woman-amal-salad-admits-crash-that-killed-promising-young-jockey-ngakau-hailey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/313821\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton woman Amal Salad admits crash that killed promising young jockey Ngakau Hailey"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, the victim\u2019s<\/a> mother subsequently stood up and addressed the magistrate, saying she didn\u2019t want the document released.<\/p>\n

In a memorandum to Mascelle, following an adjournment, the family said they opposed its release as they had received a lot of harassment since Hailey\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Mascelle granted the family\u2019s request and declined to issue the summary to the media, but then said there was a high chance the document would be released at sentencing.<\/p>\n

\"MournersMourners do wheelies on their dirt bikes on the Waikato Expressway after the funeral for jockey Ngakau Hailey last year. Hailey died while riding a dirt bike.<\/p>\n

The summary of facts is an agreed statement outlining what happened that day, both Salad\u2019s and Hailey\u2019s actions in the lead-up to the Hamilton crash, as well as the direction, speed, and manner in which they were both driving.<\/p>\n

\u2018A really talented rider\u2019<\/p>\n

Hailey, 18, was a promising jockey and was set to ride at the Cambridge races the day after his death.<\/p>\n

A Givealittle page<\/a> was also set up to support his family through the tragedy, which raised more than $11,000.<\/p>\n

NZ Thoroughbred Racing chief operating officer Darin Balcombe said Hailey had been described as someone who always had \u201ca smile on his face\u201d and was \u201ca really talented rider\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, just days after his funeral, a video surfaced online of a group of mourners performing wheelies on the Waikato Expressway. <\/p>\n

The group\u2019s actions, carried out in wet and foggy conditions, were later condemned by police.<\/p>\n

Hailey\u2019s grandmother, Linda Gough, told the Herald at the time that their family also condemned the actions of the dirt bikers during the final journey to the cemetery, saying that it put their family in danger.<\/p>\n

Gough said Hailey often told his family how much he enjoyed dirt bike riding.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018My mind goes free, I\u2019m free\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, the victim\u2019s mother subsequently stood up and addressed the magistrate, saying she didn\u2019t want the document released.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16489,10343,3549,86375,6288,12815,3375,111,43,139,170468,69,15483,32128,1361,1354,4741],"class_list":["post-313821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-admits","tag-amal","tag-crash","tag-hailey","tag-hamilton","tag-jockey","tag-killed","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-ngakau","tag-nz","tag-promising","tag-salad","tag-that","tag-woman","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313821","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=313821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}