HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Wet Paint, who swept the 3-year-old filly series last year at Oaklawn Park, could launch her 4-year-old season here in the Grade 1, $1.25 Apple Blossom Handicap, trainer Brad Cox said Tuesday.

Wet Paint won the Martha Washington, Honeybee, and Fantasy at Oaklawn for breeder Godolphin, before going on to run a good fourth in the Kentucky Oaks. She later won the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga. Wet Paint last raced Nov. 4 and was eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

The Apple Blossom, which will be run over 1 1/16 miles, is April 13.

Can Group won his first two grass races at age 2, including the Bourbon at Keeneland, and capped his campaign with a fine two-length defeat in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, where his 22.74-second final quarter-mile, easily best in the 11-runner field, propelled him from 11th at the stretch call to fourth. Flavien Prat rode Can Group that day.

“Flavien came back and said, ‘This is a good horse,’ ” trainer Mark Casse recalled.

A low weight assignment, and certainly the gelding’s recent race record, has given Another Wil the role of a strong favorite in Friday’s Group 1 Doncaster Mile at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia.

The $2.61 million Doncaster Mile is a handicap, and Another Wil is firmly toward the bottom of the list of weights in the field of 20. Trained by Ciaron Maher, Another Wil has been assigned 110.2 pounds, far below topweight Think About It at 125.6 pounds.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer John Terranova looks poised to have a big Friday at Aqueduct with three contenders on the eight-race card.

In the featured seventh, a second-level $62,500 allowance/optional-claiming race at six furlongs, Terranova sends out Thrill of It, who on paper appears the best closer in a speed-laden field.

Crypto Mo will help usher in the Evangeline Downs meet on Friday night, when she makes her first start since capturing last summer’s Grade 3 Iowa Oaks in the $60,000 Spotted Horse.

The one-mile race for fillies and mares is one of two stakes on the card. The $60,000 Acadiana features 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs.

Evangeline, in Opelousas, La., is set to race 70 dates through Aug. 24. First post will be 5:30 p.m. Central. The track will race Wednesday through Saturday in April and May and Thursday through Saturday through August.

Doncho has looked like a stakes horse since his debut Dec. 30 at Fair Grounds and on Friday, in the $400,000 Lafayette Stakes at Keeneland, he can show that he is one.

Doncho is one of eight 3-year-olds entered in the Lafayette, a seven-furlong dirt race. The competition is stronger than what Doncho beat in his debut and a subsequent allowance win, and Doncho goes a furlong farther than he’s raced.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Victor Barboza Jr. and the connections of Grand Mo the First will be paying close attention to Saturday’s three Kentucky Derby preps – the Wood Memorial, Blue Grass, and Santa Anita Derby. Grand Mo the First has 40 qualifying points to the Derby, which have him on the bubble in 16th place when it comes to getting into the race.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Friday will be quiet at Santa Anita, compared to the day before and day after. Thursday included two graded stakes on turf; Saturday, the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby is one of five scheduled stakes.

Friday’s nine-race card includes four maiden races, three of which have claiming provisions. Based on the last three months, bettors may have a general idea of what to expect Friday. Or, not.

Forever Young

Colt by Real Steel – Forever Darling, by Congrats

Bred in Japan by Northern Racing ($720,603 JRHA select yearling and foal sale purchase by Fujita Susumu)

Japan’s Forever Young made a huge jump up to third choice on Derby Watch after clinching his spot in the Kentucky Derby field with his win in the Group 2 U.A.E. Derby at Meydan. The colt, a product of the most prominent sireline in Japan, is from a female family that has produced another of this year’s Derby Watch top choices – immediate relation Sierra Leone.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It’s father-son day at the races Friday for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and jockey Keith James Asmussen, who will team with seven starters on the 10-race Oaklawn Park program.

They will be represented in both of the afternoon’s six-furlong allowance races. Risk It is a chief contender in the third race, a first-level allowance for 3-year-olds, while Echo Again is capable in the ninth, a second-level allowance.