You forget one thing. You say take away slots and the track would close in a week. Remember, if it was not for the slots, there would be no track; no one would have been foolish to build the track.

That being said, in the event of horse racing in the opposite direction, I agree with the judges decision. The drivers need to worry more about the loose horse deciding to make a turn into them than making a full effort to try in the race. Ever see what happens when you have two horses collide? Usually there is one or two dead horses. I just watched the replay. It took a long time for the judges to make the 'No Race' call (the video showed six minutes of an inquiry before the video ended and still no decision was made). Perhaps they talked to the drivers of the remaining horses and found out they were more worried about avoiding the loose horse than racing to the fullest effort thus deciding to make the race a 'No Start'.

I would have done one better than what the judges did. If I wrote the rules, if there is an accident and a horse starts running the opposite way and can meet the field, I would have the drivers pull up their horses and declare it a no start. Worrying about the safety of horse and driver trumps winning a wager.