Rain Delays World Trotting Derby

A steady rain that started at 11:30 am and continued for about a half hour has forced a delay in the start of the World Trotting Derby program this afternoon at the Du Quoin State Fair.

 

At one o'clock, an hour after the prgram was to start, fair and track officials decided to begin scraping back the track. Race Secretary Eliot "Doc" Nartosky has set 6 p.m. for the first post. The Du Quoin track has lights and can race the prgram into the evening.

 

The delay in the program has forced several of the nation's top drivers, who were to drive in the Derby and other stakes races on the prgram, to leave for Canada where they are down to drive in the Metro Stakes program at Mohawk Raceway. Included among the departing drivers is Brian Sears, the regular driver on Derby favorite Muscle Hill.

 

Although trainer Greg Peck had contemplated driving Muscle Himself, he made a phone call to Luke McCarthy, who is currently racing at The Red Mile in Lexington, Ky., to ask if he'd made the trip to Du Quoin to drive the Hambletonian winner. McCarthy quickly agreed and made the drive across Kentucky into Illinois. Although Sears has been Muscle Hill's regular driver over the past two years, McCarthy's brother, Andrew, was behind colt last year for a late-closing event at The Red Mile.