EAST HANOVER, Pa. — A set of animals you don’t typically see racing around the track were at Penn National Race Course in Dauphin County on Friday.
Penn National Race Course held its 9th annual Ostrich and Camel Race in East Hanover Township with a new addition of zebras, on this year’s race lineup.
"I love animals, [my daughter] loves animals, I thought it was a good thing to do for a day off," said Courtney Guers who travelled from Schuylkill Haven with her husband Hunter Wolfson and 13-month-old daughter, Anna Belle to catch the event.
"It was a good thing to do for a day off," said Wolfson. "I've never seen ostriches race before so seems like it'd be fun."
For the thousands of people who attended Friday's event, many of them attending the racetrack for the first time, it was a day of racing they were just not going to miss.
"I’ve never been to a race like this before. I was talking with my buddies and told them ostriches and zebras sounds interesting, I’ve never seen that before," said Brandon Bullock, a York resident new to the horse track. "No matter what I’m making this day."
It was a interest in the unique event that did not go unnoticed by organizers.
"The crowd has been fantastic. It's beyond what we expected," said Eric Johnson, Penn National's Director of Racing. "We knew we're going to have a big day coming in after the day after July. We didn't expect it to be this big [though]."
It’s an event all part of an effort to inspire more passion for horse racing in the area.
"We put these programs on to get people out so they can have fun, but it also introduces them to the thoroughbred racing," said Johnson. "Hopefully they go away with the idea that this thoroughbred racing thing is a lot of fun and that they got to come back out."