Penn National cancels Friday, Saturday night cards

The combination of a freeze-and-thaw cycle plus the anticipation of additional snow and freezing rain has caused Penn National Race Course to call off its Friday and Saturday night live racing programs.

Both cards will be brought back on Monday and Tuesday nights.

"The storm on Wednesday in our area was freezing rain and ice" said Mark Loewe, vice president of racing, "and then above freezing temperatures on Thursday put us into a freeze-thaw cycle that is very hard on the racing surface. You can't remove ice like it was a layer of snow, and when it thaws in the daytime, and then freezes up at night, there are problems."

Weather reports for the central Pennsylvania area call for light snow late Friday and then a mix of snow and freezing rain on Saturday.