diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/relay/relay_event_utility.c b/src/backend/distributed/relay/relay_event_utility.c
index fc6f91e66..06ecb59e1 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/relay/relay_event_utility.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/relay/relay_event_utility.c
@@ -45,9 +45,8 @@
 /* expression tree walker context for rewriting row references */
 typedef struct
 {
-	char *relationName;
 	uint64 shardId;
-} RowRefWalkerState;
+} ColumnRefWalkerState;
 
 
 /* Local functions forward declarations */
@@ -56,9 +55,7 @@ static bool TypeDropIndexConstraint(const AlterTableCmd *command,
 									const RangeVar *relation, uint64 shardId);
 static void AppendShardIdToConstraintName(AlterTableCmd *command, uint64 shardId);
 static void SetSchemaNameIfNotExist(char **schemaName, char *newSchemaName);
-static bool ExtendRowReferencesWalker(Node *node, RowRefWalkerState *state);
-static void AppendShardIdToRowReferences(IndexStmt *statement, char *relationName, uint64
-										 shardId);
+static bool UpdateWholeRowColumnReferencesWalker(Node *node, ColumnRefWalkerState *state);
 
 /*
  * RelayEventExtendNames extends relation names in the given parse tree for
@@ -297,6 +294,7 @@ RelayEventExtendNames(Node *parseTree, char *schemaName, uint64 shardId)
 		case T_IndexStmt:
 		{
 			IndexStmt *indexStmt = (IndexStmt *) parseTree;
+			ColumnRefWalkerState state;
 			char **relationName = &(indexStmt->relation->relname);
 			char **indexName = &(indexStmt->idxname);
 			char **relationSchemaName = &(indexStmt->relation->schemaname);
@@ -322,10 +320,14 @@ RelayEventExtendNames(Node *parseTree, char *schemaName, uint64 shardId)
 				ereport(ERROR, (errmsg("cannot extend name for null index name")));
 			}
 
+			/* extend ColumnRef nodes in the IndexStmt with the shardId */
+			state.shardId = shardId;
+			raw_expression_tree_walker((Node *) indexStmt->indexParams,
+									   UpdateWholeRowColumnReferencesWalker, &state);
+
 			/* prefix with schema name if it is not added already */
 			SetSchemaNameIfNotExist(relationSchemaName, schemaName);
 
-			AppendShardIdToRowReferences(indexStmt, *relationName, shardId);
 			AppendShardIdToName(relationName, shardId);
 			AppendShardIdToName(indexName, shardId);
 			break;
@@ -548,8 +550,10 @@ AppendShardIdToConstraintName(AlterTableCmd *command, uint64 shardId)
 
 
 static bool
-ExtendRowReferencesWalker(Node *node, RowRefWalkerState *state)
+UpdateWholeRowColumnReferencesWalker(Node *node, ColumnRefWalkerState *state)
 {
+	bool walkIsComplete = false;
+
 	if (node == NULL)
 	{
 		return false;
@@ -559,55 +563,41 @@ ExtendRowReferencesWalker(Node *node, RowRefWalkerState *state)
 	{
 		IndexElem *indexElem = (IndexElem *) node;
 
-		return raw_expression_tree_walker(indexElem->expr, ExtendRowReferencesWalker,
-										  state);
+		walkIsComplete = raw_expression_tree_walker(indexElem->expr,
+													UpdateWholeRowColumnReferencesWalker,
+													state);
 	}
 	else if (IsA(node, ColumnRef))
 	{
 		ColumnRef *columnRef = (ColumnRef *) node;
-		ListCell *fieldsCell;
+		Node *lastField = llast(columnRef->fields);
 
-		/*
-		 * Append the shardId to any ColumnRef String values that are
-		 * equal to the relationName.  These are actually ROW(relname)
-		 * references.
-		 */
-		foreach(fieldsCell, columnRef->fields)
+		if (IsA(lastField, A_Star))
 		{
-			Value *fieldValue = (Value *) lfirst(fieldsCell);
+			/*
+			 * ColumnRef fields list ends with an A_Star, so we can blindly
+			 * extend the penultimate element with the shardId.
+			 */
+			Value *relnameValue;
+			int len = list_length(columnRef->fields);
 
-			if (IsA(fieldValue, String))
-			{
-				char *columnName = strVal(fieldValue);
+			relnameValue = list_nth(columnRef->fields, len - 2);
+			Assert(IsA(relnameValue, String));
 
-				if (strncmp(columnName, state->relationName, NAMEDATALEN) == 0)
-				{
-					AppendShardIdToName(&columnName, state->shardId);
-					fieldsCell->data.ptr_value = makeString(columnName);
-				}
-			}
+			AppendShardIdToName(&relnameValue->val.str, state->shardId);
 		}
+
+		/* might be more than one ColumnRef to visit */
+		walkIsComplete = false;
+	}
+	else
+	{
+		walkIsComplete = raw_expression_tree_walker(node,
+													UpdateWholeRowColumnReferencesWalker,
+													state);
 	}
 
-	return raw_expression_tree_walker(node, ExtendRowReferencesWalker, (void *) state);
-}
-
-
-/*
- * AppendShardIdToRowReferences finds ColumnRef nodes that directly reference
- * a column with the same name as the relation and extends those names with the
- * given shardId.
- */
-static void
-AppendShardIdToRowReferences(IndexStmt *indexStmt, char *relationName, uint64 shardId)
-{
-	RowRefWalkerState state;
-
-	state.relationName = relationName;
-	state.shardId = shardId;
-
-	raw_expression_tree_walker((Node *) indexStmt->indexParams, ExtendRowReferencesWalker,
-							   &state);
+	return walkIsComplete;
 }
 
 
diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/utils/ruleutils_95.c b/src/backend/distributed/utils/ruleutils_95.c
index 34e53c26a..4802e66fb 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/utils/ruleutils_95.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/utils/ruleutils_95.c
@@ -3623,8 +3623,20 @@ get_variable(Var *var, int levelsup, bool istoplevel, deparse_context *context)
 	}
 	else
 	{
-		/* System column - name is fixed, get it from the catalog */
-		attname = get_relid_attribute_name(rte->relid, attnum);
+		CitusRTEKind rtekind;
+
+		rtekind = GetRangeTblKind(rte);
+
+		if (rtekind == CITUS_RTE_SHARD || rtekind == CITUS_RTE_REMOTE_QUERY)
+		{
+			/* System column on a Citus shared/remote relation */
+			attname = get_relid_attribute_name(rte->relid, attnum);
+		}
+		else
+		{
+			/* System column - name is fixed, get it from the catalog */
+			attname = get_rte_attribute_name(rte, attnum);
+		}
 	}
 
 	if (refname && (context->varprefix || attname == NULL))