The Gerald Hansen stable’s Talk About Valor (Travis Seekman) goes for his fourth consecutive ISFCS male trotting title Wednesday for Monee, Illinois owner Shelley Steele. (Four Footed Fotos)

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

The idiom “The Long and the Short of It” pretty much sums up this year’s Illinois State Fair harness meeting on the state’s fairgrounds.

The “Long” is today’s (August 16th) very lengthy program of twenty-two races, making for a long day for everyone involved. Post time has been moved up to 10 am to accommodate the extra-large card.

The “Short” is the fact that Springfield State Fair meet lasts for only two days. It ends tomorrow (Thursday, August 18th) with eighteen events, all Illinois State Fair Colt Stakes championships.

The reason for both is that old Springfield racing bug-a-boo:  Rain.

There was plenty of it last week forcing all three scheduled days of racing to be cancelled, which also included the elimination races for the ISFCS events, hence the 18 championship races on Thursday and the carryover of last week’s fourteen Illinois Department of Agriculture races for two and three years olds of both sexes and gaits, along with four ISFCS championships for older Illinois bred pacers and trotters that hopefully will go to the post today.

If you’re counting, that’s forty races in two afternoons. That may or may not be a record but in my 50-plus years of covering Illinois harness racing, it certainly is the most I’ve handicapped for two consecutive cards.

The Springfield oval is a great place for horses to race with its wide turns and a mile in circumference. It’s wonderful for horses because the all-dirt track never gets hard and therefore it’s easier on horses’ legs, so they get less sore or lame.

However, Mother Nature doesn’t always cooperate on race days and, surprise, sometimes it rains in Illinois. With no limestone or clay to absorb any moisture, the dirt track becomes muddy and unsuitable for racing. And a muddy mile track can’t be just whisked away, at least not in a short period of time.

We have our fingers crossed that today and Thursday will be sunny and dry, and both shows will go on as scheduled.

Older Finals? You Bet: The aged championships will go as races five, six, seven and eight on Wednesday’s 22-race card. Defending their division champions are He’zzz A Wise Sky (Kyle Wilfong) in the male pace, Talk About Valor (Travis Seekman) in the male trot, Skeeter Machine (Travis Seekman) in the mare pace, and Annas Lucky Star (Kyle Wilfong) in the gals trot.

Unlike the recently concluded Hawthorne Downstate meeting, these is pari-mutuel betting both Wednesday and Thursday at Springfield and the same goes for the Du Quoin State Fair meeting that begins on Monday, August 28th.

Did I mention that Du Quoin is also a one-mile all-dirt oval?