Tom's d'Etat a future sire to watch

Tom’s d’Etat scored the fifth stakes victory of his career in Saturday’s Oaklawn Mile, the first start of his 7-year-old campaign. The late-blooming Tom’s d’Etat gives the late leading sire Smart Strike the opportunity for one more prominent son at stud when he eventually retires.

Tom’s d’Etat, who is trained by Al Stall Jr. for GMB Racing, has won 10 of 17 starts for earnings of more than $1.3 million. Tom’s d’Etat, plagued by physical issues during the early years of his career, returned in strong style from a layoff of more than a year in November 2018. He won an optional-claiming race and a month later won the Tenacious Stakes at Fair Grounds. Since then, he has competed exclusively in stakes company.

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Last year, he won the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill Downs, the Grade 2 Fayette at Keeneland, and the Alydar at Saratoga, and placed in a pair of graded stakes in Kentucky.

Tom’s d’Etat is from one of the final full crops by Smart Strike, the sire of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin; Eclipse Award champions English Channel, Lookin At Lucky, and My Miss Aurelia; Sovereign Award champions Added Edge, Eye of the Sphynx, Gold Strike, Never Retreat, Portcullis, and Soaring Free; and four other international champions. Smart Strike, by Mr. Prospector, died in March 2015. His 2013 crop of 100 foals is led by Tom’s d’Etat and does not include another prominent stallion prospect, as the other standouts from that crop are graded stakes-winning geldings Cleopatra’s Strike and Liam the Charmer and several stakes-performing fillies.

Smart Strike sired 97 foals born in 2014, with his lone graded stakes-performing son from that crop the late Battle of Midway. That colt, third in the 2017 Kentucky Derby, seemingly capped his career by winning the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, his third stakes win of 2017. He was subsequently retired to co-owner WinStar Farm in Kentucky and was expected to be a popular stallion as one of the last significant sons of Smart Strike. However, Battle of Midway was found to be subfertile. According to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred and resulting foal crop statistics, Battle of Midway covered 61 mares, resulting in seven live foals of 2019. Battle of Midway returned to the racetrack and won a graded stakes during his second campaign, but sustained a fatal injury during a work in February 2019.

Smart Strike was represented by 64 foals born in 2015, and a final small crop of four foals born posthumously the following year. Neither group has produced a graded winner.

Smart Strike’s active sons remaining at stud include a quartet in Kentucky, led by Curlin, who has become a perennial leading sire and a consistent classic sire. His offspring are led by Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Eclipse Award champion Vino Rosso, classic-placed Eclipse champion Good Magic, champion Stellar Wind, Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, and Preakness Stakes winner Exaggerator. Smart Strike also is represented in Kentucky by Lookin At Lucky, sire of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and champion Accelerate and Kentucky Derby winner Country House; English Channel, the sire of nine Grade 1 winners; and Dominus. Smart Strike’s other sons standing stud in the United States include leading California sire Square Eddie.

There is no stud deal yet announced for Tom’s d’Etat, but in addition to his eventual addition to the ranks, there is plenty to look forward to for this sireline, as Smart Strike’s successful sons begin to proliferate. Curlin has more than a dozen sons at stud. The most significant of those is Palace Malice, who finished third on last year’s freshman sire earnings list, led by Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Structor. Curlin has three freshmen in this year’s class in Exaggerator, Jess’s Dream, and Ride On Curlin. The latter, who stands in Florida, will be represented by his first starter, Sophisticurl, in the first 2-year-old race of the year on Thursday at Gulfstream Park.

English Channel has several sons at stud, with Grade 1 winner V. E. Day among his representatives in this freshman class. Meanwhile, Lookin At Lucky has two significant sons coming down the pike, with Accelerate’s first foals arriving this year. Country House, who was retired following a battle with laminitis, is expected to enter stud in 2021.