Hot weather forces 2 tracks to cancel, 1 to delay racing

Monmouth Park and Delaware Park canceled Friday's scheduled races, and Colonial Downs pushed its first post time back one hour because of the extreme heat that continues to grip the eastern half of the U.S.

All races canceled Friday at Monmouth Park will be brought back as extras for next Friday, and the racing office also will look to use them through next weekend. Entries will be taken Sunday for next Friday’s card.

Click here for Monmouth Park entries and results.

Delaware Park announced its cancellation Thursday, when it managed to squeeze in a day of races. Racing there is scheduled to resume Saturday.

The decision to delay races Friday at Colonial Downs was made in the afternoon. The racing office announced in a text message at 2:59 p.m. EDT that the first post would be moved from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. This comes one day after jockey Tyler Conner broke his neck and nose in a spill that led to the last four races on Thursday's card to be canceled.

With heat advisories and severe-thunderstorm watches in effect, forecasters at the National Weather Service predicted a high near 95 with heat indices up to 106 on Friday afternoon for both Monmouth and Delaware parks. The high was expected to drop to 89 on Saturday in Oceanport, N.J., and 82 in Wilmington, Del.

The temperature will drop to 75 on Friday night at Colonial Downs, according to the NWS. It will rise again to 96 on Saturday with the potential for a peak heat index of 108. The track has races scheduled for now to start at 12:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday.