SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Add another Grade 1 winner to the Whitney field.

Giant Oak, who won the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream in February, arrived at Saratoga on Tuesday morning to prepare for a start in the Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney Handicap here Aug. 6. He will join other Grade 1 winners such as Tizway, Pool Play, Sidney’s Candy, Morning Line, and Rail Trip as well as graded stakes winners Mission Impazible and Rodman.

Trainer Chris Block said he shipped Giant Oak here from Arlington early in order to get a couple of works over Saratoga’s main track.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The end of the first half of the racing season typically comes with the Belmont Stakes, a race that proved conclusively last Saturday that the North American 3-year-old division of 2011 is a jumble.

The second half begins Saturday at Churchill Downs with the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap, a race that will endeavor to unscramble the 2011 handicap division, which also has lacked clear-cut leadership.

Good luck with that.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As the racing world begins to wean itself from the Triple Crown, the older-horse division will move into the spotlight Saturday when a big, competitive field meets in the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs.

Giant Oak, the 122-pound highweight for the 1 1/8-mile Foster, was among a slew of prospects to put in final prerace works in recent days when breezing five furlongs early Sunday in 1:00.60 over a fast Churchill surface.

“He’s coming into this as good as I’ve seen him come into one,” said trainer Chris Block.

Your browser does not support iframes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For a Grade 3 event, Friday’s $300,000 Alysheba came up a pretty tough spot. Anybody who doesn’t agree with that assessment need only ask trainer Chris Block, who will send out the likely favorite, two-time Grade 1 winner Giant Oak.

Chris Block’s next big coup on this circuit could well be the Alysheba Stakes on the May 6 Kentucky Oaks undercard. Block is pointing his handicap star, Giant Oak, to the Grade 3, $300,000 race. Giant Oak is now stabled at Churchill after wintering at Gulfstream Park, where he won the Grade 1 Donn Handicap in his first start after being awarded victory by disqualification in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap last fall at Churchill.

STICKNEY, Ill. – Chris Block is a Chicago man through and through. His family, which races as Team Block, is a leading owner and breeder in Illinois, and the heart of Block’s season as a trainer is the Arlington Park meeting. But at the moment, Block has more high-level stakes horses than at any point in his career, and to accommodate them he has opened a small division in Kentucky for the spring and early summer.

Your browser does not support iframes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. –Giant Oak, upset winner of the Grade 1 Donn Handicap last weekend, will not go to Dubai for the World Cup, trainer Chris Block said on Friday.

Giant Oak rallied from to a convincing 2 1/4-length victory over Morning Line and Rule in the 1 1/8-mile Donn. It was the second Grade 1 success in a row for Giant Oak, who closed out his 2010 season being placed first via the disqualification of Successful Dan in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Giant Oak, whose career had consisted of a series of close calls and near misses in graded stakes until he was placed first via disqualification in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap in his 2010 finale, finally won a big one outright when rallying to a two-length victory over a dead-game Morning Line in Saturday’s $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

STICKNEY, Ill. – Chris Block has horses entered in a $15,000 maiden-claimer and a $25,000 claiming race Thursday at Hawthorne, a typical winter-racing day in Chicago, with the temperature forecast to stay below freezing and the racing below allowance-class. His operation based year-round in Illinois, Block has experienced plenty of late-fall days like this.