THE tale of the turning greyhound Pennys Yankee – or should that be tail – caused excitement and controversy at Saturday’s meeting.

The Tony Magnasco-trained black dog turned in the traps to show only his tail sticking out at the front.

Four times the dog had to be re-inserted into the boxes before the 8.05 race started.

It looked as though the fifth time seemed to be successful as the starter waved his flag.

But in the time it took the hare to reach the traps, Pennys Yankee turned again and was left in the boxes as the field set off.

Once the race is under way, the traps automatically rise and move away from the racing surface.

All you could see was poor Pennys Yankee’s bottom sticking out of the boxes in mid air, swinging towards the side of the track.

Some punters thought it was funny, but others thought the race should have been stopped and declared void.

Racing manager Gary Baiden stuck to the rule book, which states that once the starter has waved his flag, the stewards are not allowed to stop the hare.

I have seen the hare stopped before during a race, but only to save a greyhound from injury.

In the case of Pennys Yankee, he wasn’t in any danger.

The dog had not shown this behaviour at the track before and in fact, won two of his last three races.