Giant Oak's Brother to Springfield Stakes

Virginia H. Tarra Trust's A Step Ahead - a full brother to dual Grade I-winning Illinois champion Giant Oak - is taking dead-aim on the Illinois-restricted $100,000 Springfield Stakes May 31.  "He breezed this morning and looked good.  I believe we'll look at the Springfield next for him," trainer Chris Block confirmed.

The Springfield will be a step back in distance for the long-winded son of the Crafty Prospector mare Crafty Oak.  "I think he's a two-turn horse and the race is a one-turn mile and can be difficult, but I'm going to try to set him up for it and take a shot," Block continued.  The chestnut is exiting a disappointing sixth in the Grade III Illinois Derby.

Speaking of talented sophomores trained by Block, he unveiled another talented two-turn specialist in Team Block and Moabo Stable's Bold Rally on Thursday afternoon.  The gray son from the first crop of the Block-trained Fort Prado easily beat a field of older turf maidens in the nightcap under leading jockey Florent Geroux.

"Next out we'll move him up to a conditioned Illinois allowance and go from there," said Block.  "He's got a lot of learning to go and that might have been a pretty moderate group he was running against, but we will bring him along the way we bring all the other ones along.  He'll go through his conditions and then he'll tell us how good he is.  I knew he would run like that.  He was running against better horses at Gulfstream and I expected him to run like that."