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.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Bentornato, who has not started since finishing second, beaten a half-length by the 2024 Eclipse Award-winning Straight No Chaser in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, had clockers checking their watches after working four furlongs in 45.09 seconds over a main track that had been back-raked and was listed as good shortly after the second renovation break Friday at Saratoga.

Maritime Traveler, the last known living foal by the legendary Secretariat, died on July 27 at the age of 35 at his longtime home, Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Fla.

Several trainers have entered multiple horses in the $70,000 Warrior’s Pride Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Sunday, but Joe Orseno might have the jump on all of them with And Uwish and Extendo. The pair return to the turf after squaring off in a handicap on synthetic last month.

The five-furlong sprint will be the 10th race on the Gulfstream card and the final leg of the Rainbow 6, for which there will be a mandatory payout and expected pool of $1.25 million.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In a New York minute – or 59.90 seconds to be precise – in last month’s Harvey Pack Stakes, Bring Theband Home raised his profile from nondescript to a serious player in the turf sprint division.

However, coming back in four weeks off a career-best performance makes him a bounce candidate in Sunday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Troy Stakes at Saratoga, perhaps opening the 5 1/2-furlong turf race up to a few potentially more attractive prices.

With a fancy pedigree and a flashy debut win, Liberation has ideal credentials to win her stakes debut in Sunday’s $100,000 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes at Del Mar. The CTBA Stakes is for California-bred 2-year-old fillies at five furlongs.

Liberation is the rare California-bred by Omaha Beach, who is based in Kentucky and ranks among the nation’s top 20 stallions in progeny earnings.

Freedom’s Not Free, a two-time stakes winner who starts in Sunday’s $100,000 La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar, was a lonely horse when he set a slow pace in the $249,000 American Derby at Churchill Downs on June 28.

Freedom’s Not Free led by a length on the backstretch but was unable to sustain the advantage, finishing third by a length after a late challenge.

“He couldn’t help but find himself on the lead,” trainer Mark Glatt said Thursday. “I think he’s a better horse with someone to follow.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard sends out runners in each co-feature on Sunday at Woodbine, including Hammerhead in the seventh race. The allowance, with a $50,000-claiming option for 3-year-olds, is scheduled for a mile on the main turf.

A War Front colt owned by Gold Square, Hammerhead graduated in his third start at 2 over a mile on the inner turf in late October. He went on to run second to the future stakes winner Church and State in allowance company before finishing a close second behind Mi Bago in the Jan. 1 Dania Beach Stakes at Gulfstream.

Heading into this year, there was little doubt as to who the 3-year-old to beat at Hastings would be. The Steve Henson trainee Mount Doom, who swept all four of last year’s open stakes for juveniles at the Vancouver, B.C., track, started his 3-year-old campaign on May 24 by outsprinting older horses and went off in the June 14 Ross McLeod Stakes as an understandably short 2-5 favorite.

The two best horses in trainer Anne Wisdom’s small stable are a pair of 5-year-old male milers, Its Kraken Time and Owhatarush, who like to race on or near the lead. Trainers typically don’t like to run stablemates against each other under most circumstances, but considering this pair’s similarities and the fact that Wisdom owns a majority stake in each horse, such wariness is especially pronounced here.