Term of Art returns in Affirmed Stakes
ARCADIA, Calif. – There was no Triple Crown glory this year for trainer Doug O’Neill, a year after Nyquist gave the stable its second Kentucky Derby win.
Irap, the winner of the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in April, was 18th in the Kentucky Derby on May 6. Term of Art, a Grade 3 winner at Del Mar last November, was last of 10 in the Preakness Stakes two weeks later.
Those colts are essentially starting the season over when they begin their summer campaigns on Saturday. Irap is entered for the Grade 3 Ohio Derby at Thistledown, while Term of Art is scheduled to run in the Grade 3 Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita.
Term of Art, owned by Calumet Farm, is winless in five starts this year, including a well-beaten third to the retired Mastery in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 11 and a seventh in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in April. Term of Art, by Tiznow, won the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes at a mile last November.
The $100,000 Affirmed Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles and is expected to be led by Battle of Midway, who was second in the Santa Anita Derby and third in the Kentucky Derby. Battle of Midway worked a half-mile in 47.60 seconds on Wednesday.
The Affirmed is expected to have a small field.
O’Neill said Term of Art can be competitive in the Affirmed if he returns to his March form.
“If he runs his San Felipe race, he’ll be tough to beat,” O’Neill said. “We’ve got Tyler Baze back on, and we’re thinking good thoughts.
“I do believe the Tiznows get better with age. We’re not hitting the panic button with this colt.”
A big race by Term of Art on Saturday could lead to a start in the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby, a $200,000 race at 1 1/8 miles on July 15. O’Neill also has Milton Freewater under consideration for that race. Milton Freewater was 10th in the Snow Chief Stakes for California-breds on turf May 29.
O’Neill said he might send a 3-year-old to the $250,000 Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows on July 7 or the $500,000 Indiana Derby at Indiana Grand on July 15. Both are Grade 3 races at 1 1/16 miles.
“It would be in play,” he said. “We’ve got a few derby prospects.”
The Affirmed is one of two Grade 3 races at Santa Anita on Saturday. The other one is the $100,000 Precisionist Stakes for older horses at 1 1/16 miles, which has a probable field of five – Accelerated, Cat Burglar, Collected, Donworth, and Keane.
John Sadler trains Accelerate. Bob Baffert trains Cat Burglar and Collected, while O’Neill has Donworth and Keane, an Argentine Grade 1 winner who has yet to start in the United States.