Late Night Pow Wow, Ms Locust Point rematch front and center in Barbara Fritchie

Late Night Pow Wow has won eight in a row. Dawn the Destroyer has posted back-to-back wins since undergoing a throat procedure. California shipper Spiced Perfection is coming off a Grade 1 victory. Throw in the speedy Ms Locust Point, who will be trying to become the first filly or mare to repeat in the Barbara Fritchie since Xtra Heat in 2002-03, and you’ve got quite a horse race.

The Grade 3, $250,000 Fritchie, which drew a field of 11, headlines a Winter Carnival card that includes four other stakes, including the Grade 3, $250,000 General George, which has a full gate of 14.

The stakes are slotted as races 5 to 9 on a 10-race card and make up five legs of the Rainbow 6 and four legs of the late pick five. Both wagers conclude with a first-level allowance.

The weather outlook for Saturday was not promising early in the week, but Accuweather has softened its forecast to a high temperature in the upper 30s and the possibility of “a little snow at times.” That would be a definite upgrade from a year ago when Ms Locust Point went wire to wire to win the Fritchie by 4 1/2 lengths over a muddy track during a snowstorm.

Late Night Pow Wow could go favored in the seven-furlong Fritchie. She drilled Ms Locust Point by five lengths in the Willa On the Move Stakes at Laurel over Thanksgiving weekend and has since scored an easy win in the What a Summer Stakes.

“I’m very pleased with my girl,” trainer Javier Conteras said of Late Night Pow Wow.

The six-furlong Willa On the Move was Ms Locust Point’s first race in five months. She has since cruised to an effortless victory in a no-conditions allowance race at Parx Racing.

In the Willa on the Move, Ms Locust Point set the pace to the stretch but had no answer when Late Night Pow Wow came calling.

“My filly is a whole lot better now than she was then,” trainer John Servis said. “She’s primed.”

Ms Locust Point has more early speed than her chief rivals and is well-drawn in post 8, with Spiced Perfection, Late Night Pow Wow, and Dawn the Destroyer in posts 1, 2, and 4.

Jorge Vargas Jr. will ride Ms Locust Point for the 11th time. He has been aboard for six of her seven wins. Fredy Peltroche is the only jockey to have ever ridden 10-for-11 Late Night Pow Wow in a race.

Dawn the Destroyer is conditioned by Kiaran McLaughlin, who sent out Dancing House and Clothes Fall Off to finish first and second in the 2016 Fritchie. Dawn the Destroyer started her career 2 for 11, but has looked like a new horse since having a tie-back throat procedure, which has improved her breathing.

She rallied from off the pace in her return from a seven-month layoff to win a second-level optional claimer at Aqueduct by 4 1/4 lengths in November. She closed just as well to win the Interborough Stakes three weeks ago.

Junior Alvarado rides.

Spiced Perfection will make her debut for trainer Peter Miller and Wachtel Stable and partners, who purchased her following her Dec. 26 victory over 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 1 La Brea at Santa Anita.

The improving California-bred does her best running from just off the pace. Flavien Prat will be aboard Spiced Perfection, the 124-pound highweight, who will concede from two to four pounds to the opposition.