KEY POINTS:
Minutes after Riccarton's last race was sensationally abandoned on Saturday night Canterbury Jockey Club CEO Tim Mills rushed to his office and the record books.
Mills wanted to confirm the last race on the corresponding raceday in recent years had been around the same time.
He was desperate
to learn that the timing of the race was not significantly later, causing the near blackout conditions that created the abandonment.
"I would have been very, very sick if I'd discovered that the race was half an hour later than usual," said Mills.
To his relief, Mills found the timing was within minutes of the norm, the race being scheduled for 5.03pm.
"Last year the race was set down for 5.00pm, the year before 5.05 then going backwards 5.00 and 4.55, so give or take eight minutes we'd been running to the same time for five years."
A rule of racing is that the last race of a programme must be 20 minutes before a local sunset, which Saturday's was. The problem was caused by a deep low weather system stuck over Christchurch for the afternoon.
Chief stipendiary steward Cameron George had been concerned about fading light for several races and had a number of times questioned jockeys about being prepared to carry on.
None had indicated they were willing to stop riding.
George again asked riders when conditions seemed to worsen before the abandoned Race 10 and all were prepared to continue riding.
The race almost certainly would have been run had a number of runners not been placed in the wrong barriers, requiring at least six horses to be backed out of their stalls.
Light was fading fast at that moment and as conditions worsened by the minute, George decided the race could not continue in the available light.
The consensus in the jockeys' room afterwards was clearly one of relief.
Not one jockey said they would not have ridden, but most said the right decision had been made.
The main concern seemed to be that the jockeys would have been seen to have caused the abandonment.
Tim Mills said the lost race would cost the club around $45,000 in direct revenue.
"Having to fit our race timing into a busy Australian schedule is an extremely difficult exercise, particularly with the recent addition of co-mingling betting pools."
Mills said the club had rejected a TAB timetable for its June meeting, because it felt the last race was too late and could have led to problems.
"We ended up going one race earlier for each event."
It's a fair bet the same will happen for all Riccarton winter meetings in future.
