RULES OF THE RANGELAND DERBY

It sounds simple. Drive out a team of four highly-strung thoroughbreds hitched to a chuckwagon, stop them at a barrel, settle them as four outriders set the tent poles and stove, wait for the starting horn...

Co-operation and co-ordination must be precise at the Rangeland Derby. There is a thin line for error and those who cross it will not be around on Day 10 for the $100,000 showdown.

Like anything else, the best laid plans of horse and man often go astray. Just when you think you've got this most famous "Half Mile of Hell" licked, the unpredictable happens. Kelly Sutherland, for instance, streaked around the track in the fastest time of the final heat and seemingly won the $50,000 jackpot, only to learn to his dismay that one of his outriders had tipped a barrel. It cost Sutherland two seconds and he wound up last in the showdown run.

It's those little intangibles that make it so difficult to run 10 days penalty free. When so much has to go right - to run fast, to stay in the top four - you just hope to avoid the heavy penalty.

Once you get your wagon in at the legal minimum weight of 1,325 pounds, stable the maximum 12 horses, and meet about 30 other rules and regulations, there are another 34 basic racing penalties to avoid.