Outage hits Lincoln

Friday the 13th lived up to its billing, as bad luck struck the opening night program at Lincoln's State Fair Park in Lincoln, Neb. A power outage struck the grandstand and forced the cancellation of the final three races of the eight-race card.

As darkness was falling and after the horses had come onto the track for the sixth race, at about 8:15 p.m., the grandstand facility went black. The horses remained on the track for more than 20 minutes before being returned to the paddock. After a delay nearing one hour, officials canceled the remainder of the program. Power reportedly was not restored to the building until 10:30 p.m., nearly 2 1/2 hours after the failure. The grandstand was the only building on the fairgrounds property affected by the outage. The Lincoln fire department was called in to rescue one employee who was trapped in an elevator for more than an hour.

The three canceled races were being offered on next Thursday and Friday's cards.