Laurel Park: Rescheduled Fritchie Handicap loses two top contenders

The rescheduled version of the Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel Park wound up with three fewer horses, including a pair of contenders from the original field who are now ineligible.

The Grade 2, $300,000 Fritchie, a seven-furlong race for fillies and mares, was pushed back one week to this Saturday after last Saturday’s program was canceled due to a snowstorm. When entries were retaken Wednesday, the lineup shrank from 10 to seven horses.

Parx Racing-based runners Winning Image and Villette, who would have been logical contenders, are prohibited from leaving the Parx grounds because of a quarantine imposed due to a possible case of equine herpesvirus. Two extreme longshots, More Than a Cruise and Sunlit City, were not re-entered.

The one new face is Merry Meadow. Based in New York with trainer Mark Hennig, Merry Meadow has crossed the wire first or second in each of her last 10 starts. She was first at the finish in three of her last four starts but lost one of those victories via disqualification.

The two favorites in the Fritchie remain Florida shipper Centrique, a winner in three of her last four starts, and La Verdad, who will be making her stakes debut after winning her last five races, three against New York-breds. Victor Carrasco will replace Florida-based rider Edgard Zayas on the Marty Wolfson-trained Centrique, who will break from the rail. Jose Ortiz comes in from New York to ride La Verdad (post 3) for trainer Linda Rice.

The Fritchie goes as race 9 on a 10-race card that begins at 12:35 p.m. Eastern.

The undercard stakes, the $100,000 John Campbell Handicap for older horses going 1 1/8 miles, drew a field of six. Three of the top choices from the original field – Bold Curlin, Indian Jones, and Israal – were not re-entered. The two newcomers not in the original cast are Mercenary, a former Woodbine horse who won his dirt debut in a first-level allowance by 4 1/4 lengths Jan. 22, and Behemoth, who most recently finished third in a third-level optional $32,000 claimer going a mile.