Tom's d'Etat in light training, will return to the races this spring

It will be a domestic campaign for the leading North American 7-year-old racehorse of 2020, Tom’s d’Etat.

No Saudi Cup, no Dubai World Cup, and not even a Pegasus World Cup Invitational for Tom’s d’Etat, who could have the first start of his 7-year-old season either in the New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds in March or the Ben Ali at Keeneland in April, trainer Al Stall said Monday.

Tom’s d’Etat is an older model with very low mileage. As the calendar flips to 2020, he has started only 16 times, winning nine of those outings, including three of his last four starts. After a tough-trip fourth in the Grade 1 Woodward, Tom’s d’Etat was much the best in the Grade 2 Fayette at Keeneland in October and capped his 2019 campaign with an easy 3 1/2-length score in the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill Downs. The various soundness problems that held him back earlier in his career appear, at this point, no longer to be an issue, and regardless of what happens at age 7, Tom’s d’Etat ended his 6-year-old season in the best form of his life.

Stall, who trains Tom’s d’Etat for Gayle Benson’s GMB Racing, gave the horse an easy December, doing nothing more strenuous than jogs, but Stall said Tom’s d’Etat is set to start galloping again this week.

Obviously, it’s the horse who ultimately will determine the shape of his 2020 season, but Stall and GMB are working backward from the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which will be held at Keeneland in November. Tom’s d’Etat, by Smart Strike out of Julia Tuttle, already won the Fayette over that surface in October and could get further experience if his connections opt for the Ben Ali. The other major races Stall said he’d like to make are the Stephen Foster in June at Churchill Downs and the Whitney in August at Saratoga.

“He’s possibly the right kind of horse for those races,” Stall said.

Meanwhile, the Stall-trained sprinter Bobby’s Wicked One remains on course to start Jan. 18 at Fair Grounds in the Duncan Kenner Memorial Stakes over six furlongs on dirt. Bobby’s Wicked One, still thriving, Stall said, following a comfortable victory in the Thanksgiving Classic at Fair Grounds, will have a potentially worthy Kenner rival in Hog Creek Hustle, who was scratched from the Dec. 28 Woodchopper Stakes in favor of the Kenner.

Stall further reported that Sharecropper, who was scratched sick from a first-level, two-turn 2-year-old allowance race Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds, has resumed steady training.