End of an Era; World Trotting Derby Sign Comes Down
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The letters of the "World Trotting Derby" sign that has hung over the main entrance to the Du Quoin State Fair since 1981 came down this week.
The dismantling brings finality to any idea the race would ever be run again. After 29 years, Du Quoin's premiere event, its sister event the Filly World Trotting Derby, and the Hayes Memorial races, were all cancelled.
The announcement that these events had been cancelled for 2010 came on March 15--the deadline for the initial payments to enter the 2010 World Trotting Derby. The decision to cut Du Quoin's Grand Circuit events was a joint effort made by the Illinois Department of Agriculture, the racing division, and the fair in order to help to try to eliminate the fair's own deficit and the then- $13 billion deficit in the state's general revenue fund.
Du Quoin had been home to the World Trotting Derby since 1981, after the Hambletonian-which was held there from 1957 to 1980-shifted to The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey.