Iron Mike Smith Rides Less to Make More

The jockey Mike Smith, 52, is still at the top of his game, partly because of his intense training regimen. Melissa Lyttle for The New York Times ENCINITAS, Calif. — There was Mike Smith, five days before his 52nd birthday, entering a no-frills gym, rubbing his strong-as-graphene hands in anticipation of another rigorous workout that would send men of a similar age to a Bengay bath and then a sleeper sofa.

It hardly mattered that he had galloped horses that morning and would return to the racetrack in the afternoon to ride three races.

For years, Smith, one of the nation’s oldest jockeys, has adhered to an almost-daily routine, whipping himself through fitness extremes that leave his fellow…