Rain stops Fair Grounds card

Heavy rain forced the cancellation of the last five races of a scheduled 10-race card Thursday at Fair Grounds. Horses in race 6, a 2-year-old allowance race, were brought onto the track for prerace warm-ups, but shortly thereafter returned to the paddock. Track maintenance personnel worked on the surface for some 15 minutes before Fair Grounds decided to scrap the remainder of the program.

"Safety, both for equine and humans, is always going to take first priority," said said the track's president, Randy Soth.

Sam Abbey, director of racing at Fair Grounds, said the races that had been lost to the cancellation would be brought back as "extras" for upcoming racing days. Fair Grounds, which has had a dry meet so far, is scheduled to resume racing Friday.