Chi Chi Time has overcome early challenges
When Chi Chi Time won a maiden race in her first career start going 6 1/2 furlongs on May 31 at Hastings, trainer Pat Jarvis said it “was kind of a nice surprise.”
That’s the understatement of the meet so far.
Chi Chi Time not only won that race but did so in stunningly dominant fashion, going wire to wire over a sloppy track for a 12-length win in a time of 1:15.13. For that, she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 80, the highest in either of two stakes restricted to 3-year-olds, the River Rock and Ross McLeod, carded for Hastings on Saturday. Each will be run at 6 1/2 furlongs, and each carries a purse of $40,000.
Chi Chi Time had a rough upbringing. She was injured in a van accident while being transported as a yearling and was so difficult to work with in early training that Jarvis said she had a rider jump off the filly after one session and say, “I’m done with this horse.”
“She’s kind of a slow learner,” Jarvis said. “You have to be patient. She’s been a challenge.”
But patience, shown by both Jarvis and jockey Kuri Powell, has paid off. Powell, said Jarvis, is a low-profile rider who resides on the Hastings grounds, but his connection with Chi Chi Time has been critical to the horse’s maturity.
“She likes her hotwalker and she loves her jockey,” Jarvis said. “He [Powell] reads to her at night.”
All in all, Jarvis added, “It’s kind of like a Hallmark story. I knew she had some game, but I didn’t know how much game because we’ve never put any pressure on her.”
There are two other horses, Zenari, also trained by Jarvis, and Another Last Dance, who are likely to vie for the lead in the River Rock, which is restricted to fillies. In a five-horse field, Jarvis isn’t quite sure what Chi Chi Time might do.
“It depends on the break. With the short field, sometimes things don’t work out the way you plan,” Jarvis said. “It’s her second race and she’s got post 1. First of all, she’s got to back that first one up.”
It will hardly be a surprise if she does.
Ross McLeod
When it comes to Mount Doom, trainer Steve Henson has never been short on confidence. The 3-year-old gelding won four stakes races during his 2024 campaign, ranking as the top juvenile at Hastings, and came back after a seven-month freshening to win a May 24 allowance against open company by a neck, earning a career-best 66 Beyer.
“He’s trained like a champ all spring, then we ran him,” Henson said. “He did everything I expected he would do. He beat older horses and did it well within himself. I was never concerned with getting beat. [Jockey] Antonio [Reyes] hit him once at the head of the lane and once near the wire, and that was it.”
While Henson concedes his ultimate goal with Mount Doom is to win Grade 3 British Columbia Derby in September, he insists that his “goal right now is Saturday.” Same goes for Rondelito, Henson’s other entrant in the six-horse Ross McLeod, who has taken a major step forward from his 2-year-old campaign in the two races since he has moved to Henson’s barn.
“Love him,” said Henson, whose wife, Lorie, owns the horse. “He’s kind of a scrawny thing but athletic as hell. We can’t give him enough to do. I’m actually very excited for him, and we own him ourselves, which is even better. But do I think he’ll outrun the other horse? No, not yet.”
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