It's a huge day here on Central Avenue in the Derby City. ESPN's Game Day just signed off at noon ET after three hours on the nearby University of Louisville campus ahead of the big Clemson-Louisville tilt tonight at 8 ET at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

To kill the hours in between, thousands of fans from both team will be here for much of a terrific 11-race card that starts at 12:45 ET and runs through 5:50. Team-color key: Clemson, orange and purple; Louisville, mostly black (it's a "blackout" tonight) with a little red and white here and there. There'll be swarms of those colors here today amid a spectacular day of weather (sunny skies and a high of 84).

We're fast and firm for the 2nd of 11 September meet programs, and it's one of the 2 biggest days of the meet (with Sept. 30). Four straight stakes end the card as races 8-11, all of them linked, of course, into an all-stakes pick four. There are no early SCR in any of the stakes.

Here are the links to our DRF-Plus previews of those stakes:

G2 Pocahontas (R11): http://bit.ly/2jxVOuA 

G3 Iroquois (R10): http://bit.ly/2w0iuoY

G3 Locust Grove (R8) and Open Mind (R9): http://bit.ly/2ha9Ldo

The 7 races that precede the stakes are all good ones, too, with 2 competitive allowances and plenty of rich pedigrees amid 5 MSW races. So, yeah, it's a great day not only to be a college football fan, but a racing fan, too.

Early SCR: R1-(6, 9, 11); R2-(all AEs); R4-(2, 11); R6-(all AEs); R7-(1A, 13, 14, 15).