Since mid-summer and into early fall, Hastings observers have been relishing the prospect of an October showdown in the 1 1/8-mile Harbourview between the track’s top older filly, Avana, and its top 3-year-old filly, the undefeated Chi Chi Time.
Unfortunately, they’ll have to wait a while longer for such a matchup to transpire. Chi Chi Time, who was scratched from the British Columbia Oaks on Sept. 13 after rolling over in the starting gate, is dealing with a bum wheel.
“Her heel’s really sore,” said Chi Chi Time’s trainer, Pat Jarvis. “I think she’s had enough for this year. She’s tender on it.”
Chi Chi Time’s ill-timed turning out leaves the $50,000 Harbourview, formerly known as the Ballerina, with a four-horse field and a very heavy favorite in Avana. The 4-year-old daughter of Vino Rosso is 5 for 6 this year for trainer Barbara Heads and 9 for 10 lifetime at Hastings, her lone loss coming by a jump at the wire in the Emerald Downs Stakes on June 7.
Avana, a closer, survived an absolutely glacial half-mile pace of 51.43 seconds set by stablemate Viva La Diva to win the $50,000 Delta Colleen at 1 1/16 miles on Sept. 6 by three-quarters of a length over the pacesetter, who also is entered in the Harbourview.
“I would say an ordinary horse couldn’t have recovered off such slow fractions,” Heads said. “I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t just easy fractions, it was pedestrian.”
Absent Chi Chi Time, Jarvis’s Zenari won a lackluster edition of the B.C. Oaks when the two horses who finished in front of her, Gee I’m Foxy and Someday Lady, were disqualified after Zenari was forced to check while attempting to pass those leaders in the stretch. Zenari and Someday Lady round out the field for the Harbourview, which is the first of six races on a card with a post time of 2:30 p.m. Pacific.
“We’re all expecting Avana to show up,” said Cindy Krasner, who trains Someday Lady. “She’s been outstanding all year. She’s gonna be tough to beat. My filly, she was very unfortunate last time. With the disqualification, it was kind of a tough situation, but she’s come out of that race really well and has been training well up to this race. We know she can go the distance, it’s just whether she can outrun the old girls.”
Fall Classic
Heads trains the only two horses in Saturday’s $50,000 Fall Classic who have covered the race’s distance of 1 3/8 miles, including the defending champion in Apprehend, who won last year’s race when it was a $100,000 Grade 3 known as the Premiers.
Heads’s other Fall Classic entrant, the 8-year-old At Attention, finished fourth in the 2024 Premiers but is exiting a 1 1/4-mile stakes win at Century Mile. That race earned him a Beyer Speed Figure of 82, the best last-out number in the six-horse field.
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“At least I’m not guessing if they can go the distance,” Heads said. “We know they can. At Attention is a very nice horse and he’s been really on form this year. I would probably say being on a mile track is more comfortable for him, so that’s the only downfall. He’s just a more comfortable horse on a big track.”
Apprehend had a five-race winning streak snapped when shipping to Emerald Downs for the Longacres Mile on Aug. 17. The 6-year-old then returned to Hastings on Sept. 6 for the S.W. Randall Plate, crossing the wire second, 3 1/4 lengths behind Run Rudolf, before being demoted to fourth by the stewards.
“Apprehend, he’s just a classy horse,” Heads said. “Going to the [Longacres] Mile really took the edge off him. He bled a bit in that race. It took a little bit out of him coming back in his next race. I feel he’s way better coming into this race.”
Run Rudolf, trained by Krasner, will break just to the right of Apprehend in the far-outside post 6. The 4-year-old gelding is 2 for 2 since stepping up to stakes company.
“Run Rudolf has really come into himself his last few races,” Krasner said. “He’s had some good trips and has held his own. For the longest time, we thought, ‘Gee, can he go a mile and a sixteenth?’ He proved he could, then the next race was a mile and an eighth and it was easy for him. We’re hoping the mile and three-eighths won’t be a problem. He galloped out so strong after his last race. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
The top 3-year-old male at this Hastings meet, Rondelito, is riding a five-race win streak – four of them stakes victories – and warrants serious consideration in the Fall Classic, which goes as race 5.
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