Noble Moon, Protonico Top Discovery Handicap

Noble Moon and Protonico will break side by side from posts 1 and 2 at Aqueduct Racetrack | BloodHorse.com Track Profile">Aqueduct Racetrack Nov. 1 in the $200,000 Discovery Handicap (gr. II). The first two by the rail figure to be the first two past the wire after the nine-furlong race for 3-year-olds.

Seven sophomores are entered for the Discovery, and past the top two there are few with much in the way of stakes experience. Only Just Call Kenny, third last time out in the Indiana Derby (gr. II), has hit the board in a graded stakes.

Treadway Racing Stable's Noble Moon makes his third start off a layoff following a sixth-place finish in the April 5 Wood Memorial Stakes (gr. I) at the Big A. The son of Malibu Moon  , trained by Leah Gyamati won the Jerome Stakes (gr. II) prior to the Wood, then was given a break. He returned to rally from seventh to finish fourth in the seven-furlong King's Bishop Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga Race Course, then stretched back out at Parx Racing with a fourth-place effort behind Bayern in the Pennsylvania Derby (gr. II).

Angel Arroyo gets the call on Noble Moon, who was bred in Virginia by the Estate of Edward P. Evans. He was a $200,000 Keeneland September sale graduate.

Protonico, owned by Sumaya U.S. Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher, won the Smarty Jones Stakes (gr. III) at Parx Sept. 1. it was the local prep for the Pennsylvania Derby, in which he faded to finish seventh under Javier Castellano. Joe Bravo picks up the mount at Aqueduct on the son of Giant's Causeway  —Alpha Spirit, by A.P. Indy.

Protonico is a homebred for Oussama Aboughazale's International Equities Holdings, who also races under the Sumaya banner. Aboughazale's Haras Sumaya bred and raced second dam Wild Spirit, who was Horse of the Year and a champion in her native Chile and also won the Ruffian Handicap (gr. I) and Delaware Handicap (gr. II) in 2003.

A danger in the Discovery is the speedy Bay of Plenty who makes his stakes debut for the Maktoum family's Godolphin Racing. The son of Medaglia d'Oro  —Kotuku, by A.P. Indy, has won three straight dating back to March while on the front end.