String King preps for Louisiana Champions Day Turf

By now, String King must know the 335-mile route from the River Point Equestrian Center in Haughton, La., to Fair Grounds well enough that he could walk it on his own rather than ride in a trailer, but of course, it was a horse trailer that Charlie Smith – the breeder, owner, and trainer of String King – used to take the horse from River Point to New Orleans a couple of weeks ago.

String King worked a half-mile on dirt in 48.20 seconds Nov. 14, the fastest of 125 drills at the distance that morning at Fair Grounds, and as usual, Smith, back home in northwest Louisiana, where he runs an auto-body shop, has left String King in the care of his friend, trainer Kenny Hargrave.

This is the fifth season Smith has shipped String King down to Fair Grounds, and things worked out pretty well the first four. String King won the Louisiana Champions Day Turf in 2011, 2012, and 2014 and didn’t win it in 2013 only because Smith tried him in the Classic, in which String King was beaten a dirty nose by Sunbean. The bullet work last Saturday is the first of three Smith has planned for String King as the 7-year-old gelding prepares to try to win the Turf for the fourth time Dec. 12.

“He’s doing great,” said Smith. “It doesn’t look like he’s slowed down one bit. I don’t think the age factor has caught up with him like it has with me.”

Smith’s assessment seems spot on. String King has won four of his five starts this year and seems as engaged in his task as he’s ever been. If anything is weighing him down, it’s his bankroll, which stands less than $20,000 short of $1 million, which is not bad for the smallest of small-time owners and breeders, who arranged a mating of the obscure $1,500 stud Crowned King with a mare of no great consequence named String Dancer and somehow wound up with this remarkable animal.

“The million-dollar mark is in the back of my mind,” said Smith. “As the saying goes down here, ‘Who woulda thunk it?’ I never thought I’d have a horse like that. He’s just happened to be a horse that has stayed sound. He’s got little day-to-day problems, but we try to stay on top of the little things, and that takes care of everything else.”

Smith will drive back to Fair Grounds the morning of String King’s race and still is deciding whether to take String King back to Haughton with him or leave the gelding with Hargrave to point for the Col. E.R. Bradley Handicap in January, a race String King won last year. String King has won 18 of 38 starts, finishing third or better in 30 of them, so Smith usually makes the right call.