After demoralizing DQ a year ago, Diodoro has new hope in Manitoba Derby
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The 2025 Manitoba Derby is one that trainer Robertino Diodoro would sooner forget. After a long inquiry, his gate-to-wire winner Take Charge Tom was disqualified to seventh for causing interference early in the 1 1/8-mile event.
“Last year, we got the trophy all the way to the parking lot when they took the number down,” Diodoro joked.
Diodoro sends out Take Charge Tom’s half-brother, Forty Twenty, in Monday’s renewal of the $125,000 event for 3-year-olds at Assiniboia Downs. The Randy Howg homebred should be favored off his fast last-out allowance score going a mile at Lone Star Park, for which he got a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.
After a promising beginning to his career last winter, Forty Twenty ran two poor races at Sunland Park before getting back on track at Lone Star.
“We originally thought he was going to be a very nice horse,” Diodoro recalled. “Then he kind of went south on us. He went through some growing spurts and was very immature mentally, and he still is. He’s slowly coming around and put it together in his last race, running like the horse we thought he was going to be, which was good to see.”
Diodoro believes Forty Twenty will handle the stretch-out to 1 1/8 miles.
“I think it will be fine,” Diodoro said. “He likes to be on the lead, but he’ll rate, too – he’s not a runoff. Last time, he just cruised to the lead on his own.”
Gethsemane is making his first start for trainer Monique Goulet off a wide fourth in a starter allowance at Saratoga. The son of Knicks Go was claimed for $80,000 three back at Churchill Downs when he was a leading second against non-winners of two.
The top three finishers in the one-mile Derby Trial – Really Ralis, Elston Gunn, and Prime Suspect – are all in this lineup.
Really Ralis has only lost once in four starts for trainer Cindy Krasner. The British Columbia-bred came from third to win the Trial by three lengths with a 75 Beyer. He romped in his prior start in a six-furlong allowance and certainly has the home-field advantage.
Elston Gunn raced wide after a bumpy break when second in the Trial, which came on the heels of a front-running score over a sloppy track in the six-furlong Golden Boy Stakes.
Prime Suspect set the pace before fading to third in the Trial. After earning his first win by six lengths in his local debut May 13, he doubled up in an allowance while putting up a big 87 Beyer, after which he ran second as the heavy favorite in the Golden Boy. A son of Medaglia d’Oro and a Curlin mare, he has a stamina-laden pedigree.
Following a sale, Western Warrior changed trainers after a slow-starting fifth in a May 31 allowance at Churchill, going from Mark Casse to Dino Condilenios.
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