Take Charge Tom is 1-2 on the morning line for Monday’s 77th running of the $125,000 Manitoba Derby, and justifiably so. With a race over the testing Assiniboia Downs track under his girth, he should be formidable in the 1 1/8-mile event for 3-year-olds. The Manitoba Derby kicks off the Western Derby Series, which continues with the $200,000 Canadian Derby at Century Mile on Aug. 23, and concludes with the $125,000 B.C. Derby at Hastings Sept. 13. There is a $100,000 bonus for any horse who sweeps all three races, along with $25,000 in owner-trainer bonuses. A homebred owned by Albertan Randy Howg, Take Charge Tom has won five of seven starts for trainer Robertino Diodoro. The son of Tom’s d’Etat earned a big 89 Beyer Speed Figure two back when a front-running third over a sloppy track in the 1 1/16-mile Texas Derby at Lone Star Park. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “I honestly think he’s a horse who will run on anything,” Diodoro said. Take Charge Tom was a workmanlike winner at 1-20 in the July 14 Derby Trial under Rasheed Hughes, who retains the mount in the Manitoba Derby. “The track just about got him beat,” Diodoro said. “It’s a tough place to ship into. It’s a very deep, sandy track. We never got a chance to work him over the track. He came back pretty tired. With him being there now for a while, training and working over the track, and having a race over the track, I think he’ll be a little better horse on Monday night.” Diodoro has won the Manitoba Derby four times, including with Howg’s Inside Straight in 2016. He swept the three Western Canada derbys with Sky Promise in 2018. “There was no bonus back then – just bragging rights,” Diodoro joked. Among the secondary contenders in the eight-horse field are Just Trust Me and Attack. Just Trust Me has been a model of consistency dating back to last fall in California. He capped a three-race win streak in his local debut June 3 when taking the five-furlong Fancy As Stakes by five lengths. The front-runner is coming off back-to-back seconds, in the six-furlong Golden Boy Stakes and the one-mile Derby Trial, in which he was beaten just three-quarters of a length. Antonio Whitehall will again ride Just Trust Me for the partnership of trainer Dewey Williams and Eugene Burns. Attack ships in from Century Mile off a fourth-place finish in a seven-furlong allowance with no conditions. His best of four starts this year was a third at this distance in an allowance on the synthetic Tapeta surface at Gulfstream Park in March. N’Rico Prescod has the mount for trainer Craig Smith. ◗ The seven-race card includes two $50,000 stakes, the Escape Clause for fillies and mares and the Harvey Warner Manitoba Mile for 3-year-olds and up. The Manitoba Derby goes as the sixth with a post time of 9:40 p.m. Central. Post time for the first is 7:30 p.m. ◗ There is a mandatory payout on the Jackpot Pick 5, which has a carryover of $465,000. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.