Edited Fair Grounds report
Adele Dilschneider’s Terrain, third in the March 14 grade II Louisiana Derby, remains on course for a run in the May 2 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I).
“That was a nice comeback race for him (Saturday),” said trainer and New Orleans native Al Stall Jr. Sunday morning. “He’d been off 99 days, including some down time, and I liked what I saw. We’ll be going on to Kentucky with him, and shoot for (Keeneland’s) Blue Grass or Lexington Stakes with him.”
Terrain, beaten a head for the runner-up spot in the Louisiana Derby, would have given Stall his third straight second place finish in Fair Grounds’ showcase race had the horse been able to gain the place. The Stall-trained Ketchikan was second in the 2007 renewal, and Stall also saddled My Pal Charlie to finish second last year.
Despite his close calls the last two years, Terrain would be Stall’s first Kentucky Derby starter.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tarra Trust’s Giant Oak , fourth in the Louisiana Derby, is an unlikely traveler on the road to the Kentucky Derby, according to trainer Chris Block.
“He made a run, but it wasn’t a strong run,” Block said. “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.”
