NEWCASTLE Racecourse had to ride a storm of criticism in its bid to bring all-weather racing to the north of England, and while its opening meeting on Tuesday was greeted by largely positive reviews from jockeys and trainers, there was one aspect of the day which went awry.

It was a very important one, especially in the context of racing on artificial surfaces, and that came in the dubious nature of race distances. As was pointed out by The Irish Field columnist Simon Rowlands at the time, the race distances didn’t seem to measure up to the markings at the track, or indeed to the finishing times recorded.