Devil His Due dead at 28

Devil His Due, a five-time Grade 1 winner and veteran sire, was euthanized Monday due to the infirmities of old age. The pensioned resident of Margaux Farm in Midway, Ky., was 28.

Bred in Kentucky by Peter Blum, the son of Devil’s Bag won 11 times in 41 starts for trainer Allen Jerkens for earnings of $3.92 million.

Devil His Due saw his most success as an older horse, winning back-to-back editions of the Grade 1 Suburban Handicap in 1993 and 1994, along with Grade 1 wins in the Pimlico Special and Gulfstream Park Handicap. At age 3, he won the Grade 2 Gotham Stakes in a dead-heat with Lure and took the Grade 1 Wood Memorial en route to a 12th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. He won or placed in 23 graded stakes races, including 17 Grade 1 stakes.

The Internal Revenue Service famously seized Devil His Due during his 1994 campaign, two days before he ran second in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap, based on the $4.39 million in back taxes owed by Robert LiButti, the father of owner Edith Libutti of Lion Crest Stable. Questions lingered about whether the elder LiButti owned a stake in the horse, causing Devil His Due’s purse earnings to be placed in escrow until ownership was sorted out. The courts eventually ruled in favor of the LiButtis.

The seizure kept the horse in training after he was planned to enter stud, but an ankle injury eventually forced Devil His Due into retirement in 1995. Devil His Due entered stud the next year at Gainesway in Lexington, Ky., and later moved to Margaux Farm, where he was active until 2013.

Devil His Due sired 18 crops, with 678 winners and progeny earnings of more than $54.1 million. His top runner was Dubai World Cup winner Roses in May, while his mark as a broodmare sire included multiple Grade 1 winner Game On Dude.