The North Otago region has received very little rain over the past three weeks, but at least 14ml fell at the racecourse between 8am and 1pm yesterday, causing safety concerns about the six- race card.
Stipendiary steward Nick Ydgren, who chaired yesterday's meeting, said riders came to the stewards after the first race, a rating 65 2200m.
''They had some issues with the shiftiness of the track and also that some surface water had developed at the 1400m,'' he said.
Stewards inspected the track together with jockey Matthew Cameron, administration representative Andre Klein, trainer Andrew Carston and track manager Greg Stuart.
The inspection group found no slip marks, but surface water and a very hard base underneath the top layer were the main concerns.
''Greg thought if the rain came yesterday, we would have had a beautiful track today, but it just hasn't had time to break through into the hard pan underneath,'' Ydgren said.
''They're chipping out the top bit then striking that hard pan where that good3 rating came from this morning.''
Ydgren said jockeys were not confident of riding their horses competitively, most notably when going into bends.
The first race featured only four horses and there were larger fields still to come on the six-race card.
''At the end of the day, when you've got 12 horses being ridden on a track they're not confident on, and none of them being ridden competitively, you haven't got much of a meeting really.''
Along with the surface water at the 1400m, the main areas of shiftiness were between the 800m and 600m.
''To get that 14ml on a race morning is very unfortunate.''
