They won’t be going to the starting gate Saturday at Springfield. Illinois Spring Preview has been postponed by rain. (Patricia Fryman Photography) 



By Mike Paradise for the IHHA 

  After a three-month hiatus harness racing was to return Illinois Saturday afternoon with the Spring Preview, on the Illinois State Fairgrounds at Springfield, however rain has postponed the popular Illinois Department of Agriculture program for ICF pacers and trotters ages three and upward.

 A make-up date for the Spring Preview and its 19-race race card with $60,000 in purse money on the line has not yet been announced.

 When the Spring Preview is contested, a quartet of 2023 ICF division titleholders will compete in it—three-year-old colt pacing champion Fox Valley Landen, two-year-old colt pacing winner Gorgeous Big Guy, freshman filly trotting champ Whiskey Lou, and juvenile colt trot victor Lou’s Private Eye.

 The Amy Husted stable’s runaway division champ Fox Valley Landen (Kyle Husted) will gets his first of likely many season opportunities against three-time ICF Harness Horse of the Year Fox Valley Gemini (Casey Leonard).

 Gorgeous Big Guy (Cordarius Stewart) will make his season debut for trainer Erv Miller. The son of Somestarsomewhere went 7-for 11 in his first season, racking up more than $155,000 in purse earnings and was unbeaten against Illinois bred competition.

 The Curt Grummel stable’s Whiskey Lou (Casey Leonard) hasn’t been out since she won a division of the Violet stakes back in late October when she finished her first season banking $93,920, finishing first or second in all eight of her season starts when she edged out her rival Stand By Your Man for division honors.

 The Mike Brink stable’s Stand By Your Man did get the best Whiskey Lou on Hawthorne’s Super Night by capturing the $119,000 Fox Valley Flan Final her third win in seven outings during her first campaign when she earned $82,685 for her Springfield based conditioner.

 Both talented distaffers have drawn into the same sophomore filly trot division. Whisky Lou got the best of the draw, landing the two slot while Stand By Your Man will leave from the six in the seven-horse field when the card is contested.

 Lous Private Eye (Casey Leonard) hasn’t raced in seven months and will need his Spring Preview outing as he begins his second season of racing for trainer Steve Searle. Lous Private Eye triumphs were Hawthorne’s $121,000 Super Night Kadabra championship, a $25,000 division of Du Quoin’s Governor Cup, and the $14,470 Downstate Classic at Mt. Sterling when he just missed the $100,000 plateau in earnings.

 Veteran Springfield based trainer Tom Simmons will send out ten horses on the Spring Preview card. Conditioners Mike Brink, Terry Leonard, Steve Searle, and Kevin Miller each have eight horses going postward program. Trainer Jamaica Patton and the Midwest Division of the Erv Miller stable have five starters each.