McLaughlin, Pletcher well-represented in Discovery

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-year-old males at Aqueduct.

McLaughlin, who won last year’s Discovery with Sticksstatelydude, 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.