'Americas'vs. Kya Jo in HBPA

PORTLAND, Ore. - Stakes winners Americas Pride and Kya Jo face off in Friday's $8,000 Oregon HBPA Invitational Handicap, a six-furlong test for Oregon-bred 3-year-old fillies that has drawn a field of eight.

Americas Pride will tote high weight of 121 pounds on the strength of her record of 5 wins from 19 starts and $74,355 in earnings. Americas Pride, a daughter of Baquero who races for Margaret Root and Vogt Stables, won two stakes as a juvenile. She won the 6 1/2-furlong Knights Choice Stallion Stakes at Emerald Downs and the six-furlong Bill Wineberg Stakes over this track.

Americas Pride has won once in eight starts this year, scoring in August at Emerald when dropped in for a claiming price of $8,000. Trainer Ben Root claimed her out of that race, and in her first start for Root, as well as her last start, she ran third to $16,000 rivals at Emerald on Sept. 16.

Kya Jo, a daughter of Abstract from the barn of trainer Jonathan Nance, will carry 120 pounds. Kya Jo also won a pair of stakes at 2, scoring in the six-furlong OTBA Stallion Stakes and the 1 1/16-mile Oregon Oaks. She was given the summer off after her Oaks victory on April 17, but returned to action in a 5 1/2-furlong allowance test here on Oct. 25 and ran a creditable second to Ogygians Rose.

Also a threat is Yougottabe the One, a romping winner in a statebred allowance here on Oct. 16. Yougottabe the One returned to run second in a less restricted six-furlong allowance race on Nov. 1.