LEXINGTON, Ky. – It stands to reason that a trainer who made his reputation by getting young horses primed for their first starts should be similarly adept with a young horse returning from a layoff. Wesley Ward, as phenomenal as he is with 2-year-old first-time starters, will put that hypothesis to a tangible test Sunday when sending out Gypsy Robin off a seven-month layoff in the Grade 2, $150,000 Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland.

Trainers, like horseplayers, will sometimes stare at a race’s odds in surprise, not knowing what to make of how the public is betting the race.

Defending Lone Star Park training champion Bret Calhoun had that experience when Lone Star Park opened Thursday night. He said he was surprised as his two horses loaded in the gate for Thursday’s opening-race Premiere Stakes, seeing Gold Element and Red Coyote – runners he deemed as major win threats – as somewhat overlooked 4-1 shots apiece.

“I’m thinking somebody knows something I don’t know,” he said.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Sunday’s feature at Hastings is the $50,000 George Royal for 3-year-olds and up, a great betting race with 10 well-matched horses going six furlongs. The seventh race, a six-furlong allowance race for 3-year-old fillies that drew six horses, isn’t nearly as attractive from a wagering prospective, but the presence of Claresmiezie makes it just as compelling.

Vamoose and Forest Mouse appear to give their trainer, Henry Dominguez, a strong hand in Sunday’s $100,000 Sunland Park Handicap. The 1 1/18-mile race is the final major Thoroughbred stakes of the meet, which will wrap up on Tuesday.

Vamoose won the local prep, the $50,000 Curribot, by more than three lengths in his last start Feb. 12. Forest Mouse, meanwhile, was second in that same1 1/16-mile race at Sunland.

“I feel strongly about both of them,” said Dominguez. “I expect big efforts from both of them.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Tony Dutrow has always thought Tech Fall had the ingredients to be a good horse.

“So far, I’m wrong,” Dutrow said.

Perhaps not. Tech Fall came off a nine-month layoff to win a second-level allowance race last month over a muddy and laboring Aqueduct inner track. Sunday, he tries to take a step forward and become a stakes winner when he meets six opponents in the $75,000 Action Stakes at 1 1/8 miles over Aqueduct’s main track.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Ian Black admitted to being pleasantly surprised when Fifty Proof was named Canada’s champion older male at the 2011 Sovereign Awards ceremony.

“I thought it was a very open category,” said Black, whose horse was a finalist along with Don Cavallo and James Street. “All three finalists had won one stake. But, I was worried that we’d been gone so long and people tend to forget.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It will be hard to top the career year that trainer Ralph Biamonte had in 2011, but he does seem poised for a productive 2012. He entered a trio of Ontario-bred 3-year-olds in Sunday’s $150,000 Woodstock Stakes at Woodbine, most notably Menlo Castle.

Menlo Castle is one of the early favorites for the $1 million Queen’s Plate on June 24. It took him four starts to earn his diploma, which he did in style over 6 1/2 furlongs Sept. 5 in the $201,200 Simcoe, a stakes for graduates of local yearling sales.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Winning Machine looks like the one to beat when he makes his seasonal debut in the $50,000 George Royal Stakes at Hastings Sunday. The six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up drew 12 horses but only 10 will be allowed to start.

Post time for the eight-race card is 1:50 p.m. Pacific. The George Royal goes as the last race and is scheduled for 5:20 p.m.

 HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Another World came four wide into the stretch and put in a determined bid to catch Remit and a resurging Cascabella on the wire and win the $100,000 Redbud at Oaklawn Park on Thursday. Another World proved a head better than Remit, who finished a half-length in front of third-place finisher Cascabella.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Beat the Blues rolled up the rail for a 1 3/4-length win in the $75,000 Carousel at Oaklawn Park on Thursday. Mysterious Chimes was second, holding off the late-charging Gleaming by a nose. It was another two lengths back to favorite Salty Strike in fourth.