The News-Gazette.com Weblog

Sports of All Sorts

Champaign's Kentucky Derby hopes extinguished

Posted by: Tony Bleill

Thursday, March 19, 2009 4:16 PM

Giant Oak, the 3-year-old colt trained by Chris Block of rural Champaign, is no longer under consideration for this year's Kentucky Derby, Block said this week.

Giant Oak finished a decent fourth Saturday in the Louisiana Derby. It was an OK effort, good enough that some trainers would continue to seek opportunities to get their colt to the May 2 Derby. But Block looked at the glass as being half empty, and he has a legit point. His horse likely will be more effective in grass races rather than dirt.

Saturday's race was run on a surface rated sloppy. Watch the race here.

"He made a run, but it wasn't a strong run," Block told the publicity department at Fair Ground Race Course. "I think the horse struggled with the race track, and I think the off track certainly played a lot into what happened to him yesterday, but we've had a stroke of bad luck once again with him this winter here, and we really didn't learn a lot about him.

"Right now, I just don't consider him a Kentucky Derby horse, and I'm not going to chase down that road and ruin a horse just to say I had a horse in the Kentucky Derby."