A ROUND-UP ON PLATFORM FOUR.

Last December, a longhorn destined for market made a run for it.

The rogue bull that disrupted NJ Transit service between New York and New Jersey for tens of thousands of people as it raced along the tracks at Newark Penn Station a day ago has gotten a reprieve.

NJ Transit confirmed Friday that the bull, which it called "Ricardo," had been safely transported to his new home, Skylands Animal Sanctuary in Wantage, where he joins a cow that ran amok in Brooklyn in March.

It wasn't immediately clear how the bull, seen running along one of the tracks, got loose, but video showed it running up and down tracks at the station as stunned onlookers watched with bewilderment. It happened just before 11 a.m. Thursday.

This being Soft America, somebody had to question commercial agriculture.  "Can you imagine that people wanted to kill and eat him? Unreal. Do the right thing, go vegan."

I've had that story bookmarked, and only now am telling it, because an Australian race horse also wound up at trackside.

Passengers at a Sydney commuter train station were startled last Friday night to discover they suddenly were sharing the platform with an escaped horse from a nearby stable, which — showing good horse sense — properly remained behind the yellow safety line as a train pulled in at the Warwick Farm station. The train operator, aware of the animal, did not open the train doors, preventing it from boarding.

7 News reports the animal spent a half-hour pacing the station platform before being reunited with its owner, accomplished horse racing trainer Annabel Neasham, who said the stable pony had been let out during a break-in by an intruder at the Warwick Farms stable. “(Our) horse is back at home, none the wiser, not even a scratch on him,” she told the network. Stable hand Keith Morrison said he still wanted to know how the horse found its way up the stairs and onto the platform.

Police are still searching for the person responsible for the break-in.

Surveillance video of the horse on the platform — showing startled passengers giving way to the horse — was originally shared by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, who noted, “Didn’t realise I needed to say but — horses aren’t allowed on our trains, sorry folks.” It was re-shared by Sydney Trains with the message, “The chances of a horse boarding your train are low, but never zero.”

It's an unusual occurrence of a different color, isn't it, relief, perhaps from the usual sort of freight train interference or signal troubles at the airport station.