I thought that was the first meeting on the revamped track, I thought it had been flipped an re grassed, but do stand to be corrected, also like you I didn't stay for the after party, was the first of a few cancellations, club these days certainly must feel abit anxious come race day.
Be good if there was a site where you can look at
1. Total distance run as compared to the distance of the race
2. The track each horse has taken during the race
Should be able to be done with GPS
We hear claims that barriers don't matter, sitting wide through a race etc etc. This would allow for further examination of that and what correlation there was if any
I was there the day Gold Dust went over the outside rail an on to a car,with a couple of other horses affected, one trained by Mark Nyan, from memory, for me it appeared the rider forgot to steer the horse around the corner, the caught the horse at blacks point, heading for the hills, shame as it no doubt cost the club for the realignment, was always wary of the times posted after the fix, one day posting 2.02 for the 2000m race, that very heavy ground no doubt Hokitika, but everyone horse an ride returned unscathed, real shame wasn't wanted any more.