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Please note the following guidelines refer to the Night of Champions (N)C) if hosted by the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in late September. Details are subject to change if held in conjunction with a partner.
- Nomination form, together with appropriate fee, shall be postmarked no later than May 15th and mailed to the IDOA. Nomination information and payment can also be submitted through the nomination portal on the IDOA website.
- For two- and three-year-old divisions: At this time, 2 legs are scheduled to accumulate points for the NOC.
- Leg 1 – Illinois State Fair Colt Stakes Eliminations (ISFCS)
- Leg 2 – Du Quoin State Fair
- Entry fee for each leg is $200. All entry fees shall be paid prior to horses going to the gate. There shall be no refunds for horses that do not start. Separate nomination payments for the ISFCS are required to be made with the IDOA to earn points in these legs. Points shall be earned as follows: 1st – 50; 2nd – 25; 3rd – 12; 4th – 8; 5th – 5; 6th – 9th – 1. In the event of a dead heat, points shall be combined and divided equally between affected horses. The horses with the top ten points entered in the NOC shall qualify for the championship final. If the NOC is held at Springfield, the tenth horse will start in the back tier. If there is a tie in points for the final, this will be drawn by lot. NOC finals have an estimated purse of $60,000. Please note: The Department of Agriculture will not receive information on budget figures for harness racing until June. Based on current foal numbers and a slight reduction in the NOC nomination payment, this is our estimate at this time. When more information is available, we will update the estimated purse.
- Horses that have earned sufficient points to compete in the final shall not be eligible for the consolation.
- In all NOC finals and consolations, each horse finishing 6th through last (including “Did Not Finish”) shall receive two percent of the purse. The remainder of the purse shall be divided 50-25-12-8-5 for the horses finishing 1st through 5th. Horses must start to receive purse money.
- Consolation races shall be limited to those horses that earned a minimum one point. Consolation races will be held provided a minimum of five horses are entered. Consolation races have an estimated purse of $12,000.
- Aged races will be held provided a minimum of five horses are entered. Aged races will have an entry fee of $200 and an estimated purse of $12,000-$15,000. Ten horses will qualify for the aged finals. If eliminations are needed, they will be held on the same date as the 2-Year-Old Cardinal/Violet. The purse for elimination races is estimated at $5,000.
- Qualifiers will be held on the same date as the 2-Year-Old Cardinal/Violet. These qualifiers are only for NOC eligible horses. These qualifiers are being held to give horsemen an opportunity for all NOC eligible horses to get a start on the Springfield track. There will be a small entry fee for qualifiers to assist with administrative costs.
- If any unforeseen circumstances occur regarding these races, the IDOA reserves the right to handle those decisions.