Storm scratches five cards

Five racetracks canceled their Monday racing cards because of a winter storm that left up to two feet of snow in parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

Aqueduct in New York, Laurel Park in Maryland, Charles Town and Mountaineer Park in West Virginia, and Penn National in Pennsylvania all called off racing because of the storm. Philadelphia and Mountaineer also canceled their Tuesday cards.

Because Aqueduct and Penn National were holding special holiday cards on Monday, the tracks shifted the Monday races to Wednesday, when both were originally scheduled to be closed.

For Laurel, Monday's cancellation was the third card in a row to be called off. Two of the canceled races, the $200,000 Barbara Fritchie and $200,000 General George Handicap, have been rescheduled for Saturday, Feb. 22.

The snow was expected to taper off beginning late Monday afternoon, and racing was expected to resume on Wednesday or Thursday at many of the tracks.