tractor accident

Dorris "Heavy" Watson, the driver of the tractor that hit the inner rail Friday at Ellis Park, necessitating the moving of two turf races on the card to the dirt, has died. He had experienced a medical emergency during track maintainance and was taken to the hospital. Watson began his Ellis Park career in 1997 and was well known at the track. Service arrangements are pending.

A tractor driver had a medical emergency during track maintenance prior to Friday's fifth race that resulted in the tractor hitting the inner rail of the dirt track at Ellis Park. The driver was taken to the hospital via ambulance. Ellis Park did not identify the employee, citing health privacy laws. The rail was damaged about the sixteenth pole and was unable to be immediately repaired, forcing the fifth and seventh races to be moved from the main track to the turf course. Track General Manager Jeff Inman said that...