If trainer Bret Calhoun is not careful, he might just alter his reputation. The 45-year-old, regarded early in his career as a trainer of 2-year-olds, proved this past week at Lone Star Park, as he has all year, that he can win with any kind of horse, even with veteran runners competing against horses half their age.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gulfstream Park submitted a request earlier this month to the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to change the rule regarding multiple-leg wagers in cases where there is a late surface switch from turf to dirt in one or more of the races in the sequence. Unfortunately for Gulfstream Park president Ken Dunn and his customers, that request came too late to help alleviate another frustrating situation here Sunday, which was similar to the one on Feb. 27 that initiated the track's desire to change the rule.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Two days before he is to ship to Louisville for a run at the May 1 Kentucky Derby, Gotham Stakes winner Awesome Act worked five furlongs in 1:01.53 Tuesday morning over the Belmont Park training track.

It was Awesome Act's first work since he finished third behind Eskendereya and Jackson Bend in the at Aqueduct on April 3. It is the first of three scheduled works he is to have before Derby, said trainer Jeremy Noseda.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Ken McPeek said Tuesday morning that Noble's Promise, second on the graded earnings list and a potential key domino in who does and doesn't make the field for the May 1 Kentucky Derby, is "maybe 50-50 to make the race."

Noble's Promise colt emerged from his fifth-place finish in the Arkansas Derby with cuts and scrapes and a lung infection. The Cuvee colt has $738,000 in graded earnings, second only to Lookin At Lucky on a lengthy list that extends far beyond the 20-horse cutoff point.

Awesome Act will be taking his show on the road earlier than expected.

Initially slated to remain in New York until five days before the Kentucky Derby, Awesome Act is now scheduled to leave Belmont Park on Thursday evening and will arrive at Churchill Downs on Friday morning. Awesome Act, who won the Gotham here on March 6 before finishing third to Eskendereya in the Wood Memorial on April 3, will have his major work for the Derby next week and then likely a blowout the week of the race. Awesome Act was scheduled to breeze Tuesday at Belmont.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The Aqueduct stewards suspended jockey Fernando Jara seven days for an incident that occurred in the stretch of last Saturday's Grade 3 Comely Stakes. But the trainer of the horse who suffered the greatest impact in the incident is mad at his own rider for putting his filly in a precarious situation.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - There aren't many Grade 1 stakes winners who were based here at Tampa Bay Downs this meet, but Hooh Why was one of them.

Hooh Why, owned by Mark Hoffman and trained by Maria Bowersock, was shipped to Tampa to prepare for the beginning of her 4-year-old campaign in the Turf Distaff on Florida Cup Day, April 3. but a throat infection sidetracked those plans.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A field of eight 3-year-old fillies has been entered for the $100,000 Appalachian Stakes on Thursday, with Check the Label and Orchestrator two of the obvious contenders in the one-mile turf race.

The Thursday card also includes a $67,000 classified allowance that drew Hooh Why, winner of the 2009 Ashland Stakes.

The Appalachian is the first of five stakes here this week. It will be followed by the Doubledogdare on Friday, the Lexington and Giant's Causeway on Saturday, and the Ben Ali on Sunday.

Sheppard comebackers fall short

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Coolmore Lexington Stakes long has represented a last-gasp chance for a horse to make the Kentucky Derby field, regardless of whether the two-week span between races is ideal. This year, however, none of the prospective starters in the Grade 2, $300,000 Lexington have enough graded earnings to make a difference, so it looks as if the race is being rendered moot toward the Derby picture.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In one-furlong increments, Tuscan Evening has conquered the female turf division in California this year, winning graded stakes over about 6 1/2 furlongs, one mile, and 1 1/8 miles.

On Saturday, she will try something new in the $150,000 Santa Barbara Handicap, racing over 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is not concerned about the longer trip, considering the way that Tuscan Evening has dominated the opposition this year.