Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Discovery a two-barn affair
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainers Kiaran McLaughlin and Todd Pletcher have combined to win the last three runnings of the Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct, and horses from those two barns comprise half the field in Saturday’s modest renewal of the Grade 3, $250,000 race for 3-yearold males at Aqueduct.
McLaughlin, who won last year’s Discovery with Sticks stately dude, on Saturday will send out the uncoupled pair of Spieth and True Timber, while Pletcher, who won this race in 2014 with Protonico and 2015 with Tommy Macho, sends out Bonus Points in the six-horse field.
Spieth, named after former top-ranked golfer Jordan Spieth, and True Timber are both still eligible for a first-level allowance race. Bonus Points is coming off a 2 3/4-length victory in the Maryland Million Classic, run at the Discovery distance of 1 1/8 miles.
Senior Investment, the only graded stakes winner in the field, is returning to dirt for the first time since he finished fifth in the Belmont Stakes in June. Earlier in the year, he defeated West Coast by a head in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland.
Control Group, second to Twisted Tom in the Empire Classic for New York-breds, was supplemented to the Discovery at entry time by trainer Rudy Rodriguez. Can You Diggit, second in a statebred allowance race Nov. 15, also was entered by trainer Jimmy Jerkens.
Disco Partner aiming for 2018
Disco Partner, beaten just a half-length when third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 4 at Del Mar, was held out of Saturday’s inaugural running of the $125,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship. He will be given a freshening and pointed to a 2018 campaign that could include the Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai, according to trainer Christophe Clement.
“The race is three weeks from the Breeders’ Cup, I had a small question mark on his well being, and we thought it was not worth it,” Clement, who trains Disco Partner for Frank and Patricia Generazio, said in explaining the decision to skip Saturday’s race.
Disco Partner, who won the Belmont Turf Sprint in October, would have been heavily favored in the Aqueduct Turf Sprint, which drew a field of 11 for the turf and two more if the race was moved to the dirt.
Clement will still be represented by White Flag, who won the Allied Forces at Belmont in the fall before finishing third in the Grade 2 Nearctic at Woodbine last month.
Bucchero, who finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, was entered in the Aqueduct Turf Sprint and drew post 11. He was beaten only a length in the Breeders’ Cup. Prior to that, he won the Grade 2 Woodford at Keeneland.
Ready for Rye, entered in Thursday’s Fall Highweight Handicap on dirt, was crossentered in this race.
Forever Together draws seven
My Impression, Elysea’s World, and Penjade, the secondthird-, and fourth-place finishers from the Grade 3 Athenia on Oct. 28 at Belmont, are three of the seven fillies and mares entered in the $150,000 Forever Together Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct.
My Impression, trained by Shug McGaughey, was beaten a neck by Off Limits while finishing a length in front of Elysea’s World in the Athenia, which, like the Forever Together, is run at 1 1/16 miles. Penjade was another nose back in fourth.
Others entered in the Forever Together were Bishop’s Pond, Not Taken, Sweet Sandy, and Winter.
At least 10 for Cigar Mile
A field of at least 10 is expected for the Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile, a race traditionally run the Saturday after Thanksgiving that this year was moved back to Dec. 2 to accommodate horses who may have run in a Breeders’ Cup race on Nov. 4.
Three horses coming out of Breeders’ Cup races are expected for the Cigar Mile, including Sharp Azteca and Practical Joke, second and fourth, respectively, in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, and Mind Your Biscuits, third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
On Tuesday, Mind Your Biscuits, worked five furlongs in 59.96 seconds over Belmont Park’s main track. With new rider Irad Ortiz Jr. up, Mind Your Biscuits began his work about six lengths behind stablemate Maimo, a 2-year-old maiden. Mind Your Biscuits went his opening quarter in 24.07 and came to the top of the lane in 35.26, gradually advancing toward his workmate. Mind Your Biscuits caught Maimo by the three-sixteenths pole and came home mostly on his own before galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.53 and seven furlongs in 1:26.81.
Trainer Chad Summers, who said he liked what he saw from Mind Your Biscuits, noted it would be the most serious move Mind Your Biscuits will have in the four weeks between the Breeders’ Cup and the Cigar Mile. Mind Your Biscuits could blow out a quarter or three furlongs next week.
Ortiz will replace Joel Rosario, who had ridden Mind Your Biscuits in his last six starts and 11 of 18 overall. Rosario will ride Practical Joke in the Cigar Mile. Ortiz rode Mind Your Biscuits once, winning a New York-bred maiden race by 7 1/2 lengths at Aqueduct in April 2016.
“He loved him when he breezed him before the Breeders’ Cup,” Summers said. “I’m excited to have him ride us in the Cigar Mile.”
With riders, the Cigar Mile field is expected to include Americanize (Rafael Bejarano); Beasley (Junior Alvarado); Mind Your Biscuits (Irad Ortiz Jr.); Neolithic (undecided); Practical Joke (Joel Rosario); Seymourdini (Jose Ortiz); Sharp Azteca (Javier Castellano); Summer Revolution (undecided); Tale of S’avall (John Velazquez); and Tom’s Ready (Mike Smith). Vulcan’s Forge is a possible starter.