Today's New Years Day races at Waikouaiti have been abandoned because of safety concerns.
Fiesty Jane ridden by Kylie Williams was observed to slip when racing in the meeting’s first event.
That prompted stewards, jockeys and trainers to inspect the Waikouaiti track and delay the second race on the Waikouaiti card.
After those inspections the race meeting was abandoned.
This came as a blow to the thousands of people who had turned up to watch the races.
Stipendary steward Mark Davidson said officials were left with no option but to abandon the race meeting because of the unsafe state of the track.
"Unfortunately after the first race was run, one rider came back and reported that their horse had shifted or slipped at the 800m," he said.
"Upon inspection, with a couple of jockeys, club officials and trainer reps, clearly quite a few horses had slipped on the turn with half a dozen slip marks."
The evidence of marks left on the track from horses slipping in the first race meant the safety risk was too great for the meeting to continue.
"Clearly there was evidence that horses had slipped on the turn, it is not ideal.
"We can’t send riders and horses back out there because we can not guarantee their safety."
