{"id":251878,"date":"2025-07-09T22:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T22:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/251878\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T22:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T22:26:11","slug":"young-jockey-ngakau-hailey-dies-in-hamilton-dirtbike-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/251878\/","title":{"rendered":"Young jockey Ngakau Hailey dies in Hamilton dirtbike crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Givealittle page<\/a> has been set up by Hailey\u2019s close friend to support his family through the tragedy and help pay for funeral costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA naturally gifted young man with a bright future taken away from us so soon,\u201d the page says.<\/p>\n

It has already raised more than $11,000.<\/p>\n

AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n

A reporter at the intersection where the Hamilton crash occurred yesterday saw at least 10 police cars at the scene. <\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, the rider of the dirtbike received critical injuries and was transported to hospital where they later died,\u201d police said today.<\/p>\n

The police spokesperson said enquiries into the circumstances of the crash are ongoing.<\/p>\n

Born and initially raised on the East Coast of the North Island, Hailey<\/a> said in a previous interview that he has been riding horses since before he can remember, and always had a love for the animal.<\/p>\n

In 2023, while in his first season of riding, the then-apprentice jockey won his first race in Cambridge at 16 years old.<\/p>\n

Hailey rode 46 winners during his career, with 92 placings in 470 starts.<\/p>\n

Hailey told LoveRacing News in 2023 that he enjoyed an idyllic childhood, but soon had to adjust to city life where other sports took precedence over horses for a couple of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved to Hamilton when I was eight and I stopped riding for a little bit, I was only riding every now and again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rugby league, touch and boxing became his new loves. However, a chance encounter with trackwork riding rearranged his priorities, and he became intent on a career in the saddle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/b><\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/b> <\/p>\n

AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Givealittle page has been set up by Hailey\u2019s close friend to support his family through the tragedy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[10911,25047,6640,97067,97068,27577,18716,97070,256,43061,35500,97066,97071,1071,79,16,15,97069,18013],"class_list":{"0":"post-251878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-been","9":"tag-between","10":"tag-crash","11":"tag-dies","12":"tag-dirtbike","13":"tag-hailey","14":"tag-hamilton","15":"tag-identified","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-jockey","18":"tag-killed","19":"tag-ngakau","20":"tag-promising","21":"tag-racing","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-yesterday","26":"tag-young"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114825631549062199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}