Fair Grounds: String King points to Colonel Bradley

Most of the stakes horses of note from Saturday's Louisiana Champions Day card will continue to take advantage of their Louisiana-bred status. One exception is String King, who finished second by about an inch in the $150,000 Champions Day Classic, a stinging loss for owner-breeder-trainer Charlie Smith, who chose that spot over the $100,000 Turf, in which String King, a more proven grass horse, would have been heavily favored.

“That was probably the toughest beat I’ve ever had in my life,” Smith said. “One stride before the wire and one stride after the wire we were in front. Unfortunately, the race ends at the wire.”

The Classic was contested after the Fair Grounds dirt had turned very sloppy. Jockey James Graham told Smith that the conditions blunted String King’s finish, and they also didn’t allow Smith to get a line on his horse’s performance level on a dry dirt track. That means Smith will return String King to grass for his next start, which will come, if all goes well, in the Grade 3 Colonel Bradley on Jan. 18, a race in which String King finished second to Optimizer last season.

Sunbean headed to Delta Downs

Sunbean, who nipped String King to win the Classic, is likely to make his next start in the $200,000 Premier Night Championship on Dec. 1 at Delta Downs, according to trainer Ron Faucheux.

“That’s the richest race for Louisiana-breds, so it makes sense for him,” Faucheux said.

Sunbean won for the sixth time in the Classic and has won six of his seven starts against Louisiana-breds. Faucheux said a return to open stakes competition could happen sometime later in the year.

Also headed to Delta’s Premier Night races are sharp Champions Day victors Heitai and Ide Be Cool.

Heitai won the Sprint on Saturday by seven lengths, his second blowout victory in the three starts Karl Broberg has trained the 3-year-old. Three races ago at Delta, Heitai won a first-level allowance race by more than 18 lengths. That performance produced a Beyer of 106 (the second-highest in North America for a 6 1/2-furlong race in 2013), while Heitai got a 104 Beyer for his Champions Day win.

“He’s a remarkable horse,” said Broberg, who will consider the Jan. 11 Costa Rising, a turf sprint at Fair Grounds, as an interim start before Delta’s statebred stakes night.

Two-year-old Ide Be Cool ran his record to 4 for 4 with a seven-furlong pasting of the talented Coteau Rouge in the Champions Day Juvenile.

“I think he’s getting better every race, and I think he’ll go any distance,” said trainer Henry Ray Dunn, who will point Ide Be Cool to the $125,000 Premier Night Prince at Delta, Dunn’s base of operations.