Melbourne Cup-winning Rogerson, a trainer, owner and breeder who has been coming to Hastings meetings for 49 years, said it was a "bad decision" because the problem could have been fixed.
"I can't remember when the last meeting was abandoned here but, in having said that, it [groundhogging] should have been done and it should have been done after the first race."
It's the first time a Hastings meeting has been abandoned on a race day, amid grumblings it has put the racecourse in a poor light even abroad.
Bay stalwarts recalled two other postponements to different venues outside the Bay but they were because of inclement weather leading up to race day.
Rogerson had two runners in the group 3 Gold Trail Stakes for fillies at 3.05pm and one in the feature Windsor Park Plate at 4.20pm, "so that certainly sets the horses back".
An incensed Bay racing stalwart said under anonymity: "The police are running things here these days, not the racing fraternity.
"The trainers, jockeys, HB Racing and members of the public were ready to roll but the stipes knocked it back," the stalwart said.
New HB Racing general manager Andrew Castles had "suggested strongly" in the judicial room to put the groundhog through the track.
"It was one the jockeys had bought into but, for whatever reasons, the RIU [racing integrity unit] representatives chose not to use something that is used extensively in Australia," Castles said.
"I think it was unfortunate in the extreme that that opportunity wasn't taken."
He hadn't had the chance to work out the impact of the fiscal blow on the abandonment.
"Hawke's Bay Racing has some financial issues anyway and this will clearly have some ramifications for us financially," he said.
It also wasn't the sort of introduction to the position Castles would have wanted after just the second of the three NZ Bostock Spring Racing Carnival meetings.
"It's the last thing that anyone wants to happen but, again, I find it unfortunate that the option of putting some remedial work through the track wasn't explored."
Amid the "crazy forecast" last week, the Bay had experienced unseasonally warm weather that had left the track "very firm" on Tuesday.
"We had irrigated during the week to try to make the situation safe.
"Look, ultimately, I have to take the responsibility here because I'm the general manager.
"But if I look at the mirror to say if I would do too many things differently the only I think I would like to have done was utilise the groundhog to do some remedial work on the track."
Jockey Dylan Turner, of Taranaki, was riding Pentime in race one, the 2200m HB Spring Carnival at 12.12pm, when he noticed the mount of veteran Opie Bosson, Earl's Court, slip.
"He [Bosson] slipped without putting any pressure on his horse but in race three Jonathan Riddell's did with pressure so that means we can't race competitively," said the 21-year-old rider, referring to the John Bary-trained Tiger Tim in the 2000m Open handicap race that started at 1.22pm.
Bary said the scuttled meeting was "just devastating for the club and trainers who have travelled a long way".
"It puts us in a bad light all the way to overseas, too, you know," Bary said, not game to say whether the track crew had over-watered the dangerous stretch or whether a ground breaker (groundhog to make holes on the turf for better hoof grip) could have been employed to make it safer.
Tiger Tim, who finished fourth, had slipped and cut himself badly.
"It's a catch-22 situation because I've run third in the first race and fourth in the third one so I was looking forward to a big day but with what's happened there'll be a lot of disgruntled owners," he said, emphasising suggestions of postponing the meeting would have been futile with rain forecast for the next two days.
"It's frustrating," he said, lamenting not having his finger on the pulse on 3-year-old filly Miss Wilson in preparation for the Guineas.
Ditto his horses, Recite and Miss Selby, "kicking back" before their next scheduled meetings.
