From a Maryland Jockey Club release
Page McKenney, the 7-5 morning-line favorite in Saturday’s John B. Campbell Handicap, has been scratched and will now run in the $250,000 General George (G3) Monday, Feb. 15.
The Campbell is to be run today at 1 1/8 miles. The General George will be run at seven furlongs. The General George will mark the first time since March 7, 2013 that Page McKenney will run at less than a mile. He finished a distant second in a six-furlong $15,000 maiden claimer at Penn National.
Trainer Mary Eppler said the decision to scratch Page McKenney, who is to be honored today at Laurel Park as the 2015 Maryland-based Horse of the Year, said weather was a factor in the decision.
“The one thing is the weather will be a lot better [Monday] than today,” Eppler said. “We’re going to try sprinting. He’s done everything we’ve asked of him. If it doesn’t work out, we’re going to go back to the mile-and-an-eighth Harrison Johnson in March.”
Page McKenney won the Harrison Johnson in 2015.
