Grade 1 winner and stallion Tom's d'Etat has died following a brief illness, GMB Racing's Greg Bensel said in an Oct. 11 post on X. He was 13.
Bred in Kentucky by SF Bloodstock, the son of Smart Strike was out of the stakes-winning and grade 3-placed Giant's Causeway mare Julia Tuttle, making him a half brother to multiple grade 3 winner and grade 1-placed Forever After All. He was purchased by Tom and Gayle Benson's GMB Racing for $330,000 out of the Hunter Valley Farm consignment at the 2014 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Trained by Al Stall Jr. throughout his five-year career, Tom's d'Etat blossomed with age. He made his stakes debut a winning one at the end of his 5-year-old campaign in the 2018 Tenacious Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. He then carried that momentum to age 6 with wins in the 2019 Clark Stakes (G1), Fayette Stakes (G2), and Alydar Stakes after hitting the board in the Alysheba Stakes (G2) and Stephen Foster Stakes (G2) earlier that season.
At 7, he won the Stephen Foster Stakes and Oaklawn Mile Stakes before wrapping up his career with a third in the Whitney Stakes (G1) and competing in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). He retired at the end of 2020 with a record of 11-2-2 from 20 starts for earnings of $1,726,272.
Tom's d'Etat stood at WinStar Farm near Versailles, Ky. from 2021-25 before standing the 2026 season for a private fee at Red River Farms in Louisiana. He sired five stakes winners among his 69 total winners to date, including 2025 Canadian Derby (G3) winner Take Charge Tom.
