Even String King won't go on forever

This is the sixth autumn that Charlie Smith has sent String King on a five-hour van ride from the training center at which he’s based during the summer, in Haughton, La., down to the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. A gelding Smith bred, owns, and trains, String King turns 9 in a little more than a month. He’s had a wonderful career, with 19 wins – 14 in stakes – from 45 starts. But it’s fair to wonder if String King will be making his annual journey a year from now.

String King has been the best Louisiana-bred turf horse of the last half-decade, though that title is too restrictive, since String King can hold his own on dirt, has won at the Grade 3 level, and once finished third in the Grade 2 Mervin Muniz. As he’s done the last four years, String King went into the Fair Grounds barn of trainer Ken Hargrave. Smith himself drives at dawn Saturday to saddle String King in the $50,000 Mr. Sulu Stakes, a race String King has won the two times he contested it.

Next month comes the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf. String King won that in 2011, 2012, and 2014. In 2013, he lost by a nose in the Champions Day Classic on dirt, while last year rotten luck was the difference between a nose loss and a fourth Champions Day Turf win.

Even in defeat, String King always has raced competitively, but he comes into Saturday’s race after two decidedly subpar performances, a seventh as the odds-on favorite against Louisiana-breds Aug. 6, then a one-paced sixth Sept. 10 in the $75,000 Unbridled Stakes, a race String King had won the previous year.

String King, by Crowned King, whose most recent listed stud fee is $1,500, went over the $1 million earnings mark at the end of 2015. This year, he has one win from six starts. But Smith is not seeing any outward signs of decline in the gelding he calls Floyd.

“I don’t know what he’s going to wind up doing just yet, but right now he’s not close to being retired,” said Smith, who owns an automobile body shop but has long dabbled in mom-and-pop scale breeding and training. “It depends on how he comes out of these two races coming up. He doesn’t know he turns 9 in January. There’s a lady – her Clydesdale that she loved on and doted on just died – that’s offered to turn him out and look after him every day. She’s been following Floyd since he was 3, and she always liked him. It’s close by, so I could go see him whenever. When it gets to be time, I guess I have that. Whatever happens, he’ll be well taken care of.”