MAKING HIS NAME CHOP CHOP CHAVEZ HOPING MOVE WEST BRINGS SUCCESS.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Staff Writer

ARCADIA - Good things rarely come quickly to Jorge Chavez, at least not as quickly as you'd expect for a man known to horseplayers coast to coast as ChopChop.

The boy from the streets of Lima, Peru, didn't sit on a thoroughbred until he was 20, didn't establish himself as a stakes-caliber jockey in the UnitedStates until he was almost 30 and didn't win his Eclipse Award and his Kentucky Derby -- and the resulting respect -- until he was nearly 40.

And after years of wondering what it would be like to ride in California, he didn't make the move from New York and Florida until last year, when he turned 45 and needed to rebuild his business following a run of injuries.

Did Chavez wonder how long it would take to prove he belonged here?

"I never thought about that," he said. "Everywhere I go, I'm positive."

Having seized a spot among the circuit's leading jockeys with uncharacteristic dispatch, Chavez will attempt something completely different Saturday when he tries to win the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby in his first ride in the WestCoast's major TripleCrown prep.

Chavez's mount is MediciCode, a British-bred gelding who arrived at trainer Darrell Vienna's barn at Santa Anita only last month as this Derby's mystery horse. Medici Code won with ridiculous ease in three races in a nine-day span this winter in England, but did it in such cheap competition at such unfashionable tracks that his class is unknowable. Bloodstock agent Richard Duggan discovered him, owner Bill Herrick agreed to buy him and Herrick paid another $6,000 for a supplemental entry Saturday.

If Medici Code beats Santa Anita Derby contenders SamP., Liquidity and KingoftheRoxy, and earns a spot in the May 5 Kentucky Derby, Vienna will have the right jockey in Chavez.

"Not too much can happen on the racetrack that he hasn't seen before," Vienna said. "When he came out here, there had been an ebb in his career. Now it looks as if the tide is rising again."

After being voted the Eclipse Award as the nation's outstanding jockey of 1999 and winning the 2001 Kentucky Derby with Monarchos in a huge rally, Chavez ran into bad luck with injuries. He broke his back when Midway Cat went down in the 2003 Florida Derby, and he shattered a collarbone in the last race of a meet at Calder (in Miami Gardens, Fla.) in 2006. The collarbone fracture was so severe, it sidelined him for five months.

After recovering, Chavez planned to resume riding in Florida before his wife Margarita nudged him in a new direction.

"She said, 'You know the last two injuries you had were in Florida,'" Chavez said. "'I think it's time you do something different."'

California, here he came, last August.

After getting acclimated, Chavez is tied for 10th at Santa Anita with 21 victories and is sixth with a 14.4 win percentage. Fellow New York transplants Richard Migliore and Aaron Gryder are fourth and fifth in wins, respectively.

His high-energy style is making Chavez -- who at 4-foot-10 is tiny even for a jockey -- as popular with bettors here as he was in NewYork.

During his rise in the 1990s, Chavez was known -- and sometimes disparaged -- for the ferocious whip action that evoked the nickname Chop Chop. Holding his whip in the "down" position, more like someone stirring paint than waving a baton, he fired off quick blasts with twitches of the wrist. He still feels the need to explain that he isn't hurting horses.

"I don't hit the horse strong," Chavez said. "I hit the horse fast."

Sitting on the bench in front of his Santa Anita locker, his feet resting on a stool, Chavez talked about Monarchos and wanting another KentuckyDerby winner.

"That was the biggest thrill of my life," he said. "That's why we're in racing -- jockeys, trainers, owners, exercise boys -- to win the (Kentucky) Derby. For two or three days I thought, 'Am I dreaming? Did I do it?'

"That's my biggest thing -- to try to find a horse for the Derby. I want to do it one more time. I want to win it again."

He grinned.

"It won't take me two or three days to realize I did it this time."

Chavez has worked MediciCode once and liked what he felt. A win would certify Chavez's place among the best on a new circuit. Ahead of schedule, based on the jockey's history.

"It's not a tough race (compared to past Santa Anita Derbies)," Chavez said. "It looks like a good spot for him. To win this would be special for me."

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) Jorge Chavez celebrates his 2001 Kentucky Derby victory aboard Monarchos.

Robert Sullivan/AFP/Getty Images

(2 -- color) CHAVEZ

Box:

(1) SANTA ANITA DERBY

(2) DERBY HORSES?