Keeping the Gold meets Halory Leigh

ALTOONA, Iowa - Keeping the Gold and Halory Leigh lead a solid field of 10 3-year-old fillies in Friday's $75,000 Prairie Meadows Oaks.

Keeping the Gold, a daughter of Langfuhr who is trained by Chris Block, had a four-race winning streak snapped in her most recent start when she finished second, beaten 1 1/2 lengths, after a wide trip in the Grade 3 Singapore Plate at Arlington Park on Aug. 9.

A repeat of that race or her previous start, when she won Arlington's Top Corsage by a head, would make Keeping the Gold tough to beat in the 1 1/16-mile Oaks. Regular jockey Eusebio Razo will be in from Chicago to ride.

Halory Leigh ships in from Saratoga where she finished off the board in back-to-back Grade 1 stakes, the Test and the Alabama. She should find the Oaks field much more to her liking.

Owner Jerry Crawford and trainer Dale Romans claimed Halory Leigh for $75,000 in June at Churchill Downs. She went on to score an easy 6 1/4-length allowance win there before shipping to Saratoga and finishing sixth in the Test and fourth, beaten 8 1/4 lengths, in the Alabama. The Alabama was her most recent start.

Cornelio Velasquez will be in from New York to ride Halory Leigh, who will carry 114 pounds under the allowance conditions of the Oaks, seven pounds less than Keeping the Gold.

The Prairie Meadows Oaks is far from a two-horse race. Wildwood Royal and Golden Reputation, the one-two finishers in the $125,000 Iowa Oaks here July 4, are both entered Friday. Meet Me at Midnite, who rallied to finish third in the Singapore Plate last out, and the Ken McPeek-trained Shot Gun Favorite, who finished third in the Top Corsage in her most recent start, also are contenders.