After a false start due to a fall that left driver Bernie Hewitt hospital, four runners crossed within two metres and one second of each other and for the first time in the prestigious race's 20-year history, two of them saluted in a dead heat.

David Druitt's Major Comment ($3.50) and Scott Hewitt's Redbank Cooper ($7) shared the honours, they couldn't be split in 2.35.837, while David Hewitt's $2.50 favourite Hurricane Roy was agonisingly close in third in 2.35.861.

Anthony Frisby's Kanena Provlima ran fourth by next to nothing and the entire field passed the post less than three seconds later.

"If that didn't get you excited for harness racing, nothing's going to," race caller Mark McNamara said, describing it as the most dramatic Canola Cup in two decades of the event.

Then, incredibly, the crowd was kept in further suspense by a protest regarding the early stages of the race, which was ultimately dismissed before the dead heat decided and the placings awarded.

Hewitt's fall onto the outside rail came after Roger That and Alta Equus locked wheels and he was transported to hospital for x-rays - which came back clear - while Steve Turnbull took the reins of the latter.

The Canola Cup wasn't the only thriller in a big day's racing at Eugowra either.

In the inaugural MD Steel Ken Sharp Memorial (2100m) Maximus Red, trained by Steve Turnbull and driven by Blake Micallef, broke the record as a $2.80 chance while Conviction set a new benchmark in the Alabar Bloodstock Don Tildsley Memorial (1700m) too.

With Amanda Turnbull in the driver's seat the $1.50 favourite broke Karoo Mick's track record with a sizzling mile rate of 1.54.7, with a ridiculous 19.6-metre margin from Gold Crown winner Beetson.