Red-hot driver Wyatt Avenatti acknowledges racing fans after another recent victory on the Illinois County Fair Circuit. (Al Brunsky photo)



By Mike Paradise for the I.H.H.A.

  Pari-mutuel harness racing wagering returns to the Prairie State Thursday for the first time in six months with the opening day of the Illinois State Fair meeting at Springfield.

 The Race Office entry box was overflowing with entries for the Illinois Department of Agriculture events with 13 of today’s 17 contests IDOA races. First post is 11 am. The last race is scheduled o go off at 8:45 pm, Central time, so it’s obviously going to be a long day for horsemen and fans alike.

 The five-day Springfield State Fair meet continues Friday and Saturday of this week with Illinois State Fair Colt eliminations and preps for all ICF classes, gaits and gender. The championships, weather permitting, will be held next Thursday, August 15.

 Last year’s ISFCS finals unfortunately were rained out at Springfield and had to be moved to Hawthorne. The championships are also the first leg of Hawthorne’s Night of Champion series.

 If you’re looking for Illinois’ “hot hand” for wagering purposes, look no further than young Wyatt Avenatti. The 28-year-old Chrisman, Illinois resident has been on quite a roll.

 Since July 29th, Wyatt has driven an impressive 40 first place finishers at nine Illinois County Fair race dates. He has zoomed past the 100-dash winning plateau for this season and gone over 400 lifetime winners in a hurry. Wyatt’s best number of wins in a single season was last year’s 93 total. He’ll leave that figure in the dust with more than five months of racing still left.

 Wyatt will get plenty of opportunities today to add to his season win figure. He’s scheduled to compete in 13 of the 17 races on the lengthy card.

 It’s “Homecoming Day” at the Illinois State Fair meet for driver Marcus Miller who now makes his home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

 The 35-year-old Marcus grew up not far from the fairgrounds and spent his first nine years of driving in his home state. He left for the east coast in 2012 with 1,789 winning drives. Now a dozen years later he has shot up to 4,600 and will try to add to the total today with his 10 opportunities.