Chimney Creek may not have been a superstar winner on the track, but in his retirement it turns out he’s got the goods to make him every bit the champ he aspired to being.

Jimmy – as he’s known at home – edged out 500-odd other entries to take out the Hits Radio Station VetsOne Hawke’s Bay Pet of the Year crown. His proud owner and rider Cindy Dames is over the moon, especially as the prize was $1000 to spend at VetsOne. “I saw the post (advertising the competition) and all the pictures of people with their pets and thought it was cute,” said 37-year-old Cindy. “I have a cute pic of Jimmy and I that mum took so entered it. Next thing they said we were one of 12 finalists. I was like, ‘wow’,” says Cindy. The rest was up to public vote, so she shared the post. “Next minute he had 697 likes and the pet who got second was on 181.”

Jimmy, who turns 25 in August, has been with her for nearly 15 years. She bought him off a sketchy and rather brief video without a vet check nor riding him. He was bred by Ashford Park Stud, by Happy Melody (USA) and out of Gold Shaft. From his 12 starts in both the North and South islands between 1997-1999, he picked up two fourths for $350 in stake money. On retirement he was started as a showjumper by Louise Marriot in Christchurch before being on-sold to the Waikato as an eventer. However, he turned out to be too hot for the dressage so was sold to the McBeths in Whangarei which is who Cindy bought him from.

 “He was advertised in the Horse Trader Magazine with one average photo but sounded like just what I wanted.” Cindy was no stranger to thoroughbreds, having had them off the track since she came off ponies onto hacks as well as riding a bit of track as a teen. “I usually ended up with dud ponies that others couldn’t ride or control, or something young – that’s what I grew up on.” Some came to her without even a name after they’d been sacked off the track.

“A thoroughbred is so forgiving – they will try whatever you ask them to do. I find them far easier to manage than anything else. Thoroughbreds pick themselves up and put themselves in a frame. You get to the end of a three day show and THE thoroughbreds will always find a bit more to give you even when they are tired. They get so much exposure to all sorts at the races when youngsters, so tents, noise and people at shows don’t usually faze them. It’s usually the horses in the warm up cantering the other way that upsets them.”

So it is no surprise that she bought Jimmy without even going north to view him in person. “He was in Whangarei and there was no way I could get there, but when he was for sale (in the magazine) the next month I called her back and that’s when she sent the video down. It was him jumping 10 jumps – it started as he went over the first and finished as he went over the last – nothing else. I took her word on it and got him sent down.”

The closest she got to a second opinion was having trainer, jockey and showjumper Sue Thompson look at the video with her. “She said it was obviously a good jockey on him which scared me a bit because I worried I wouldn’t be good enough but I took a punt.”

Her grandparents had left her some money and it made perfect sense that she spend it on a horse. He arrived the night before Cindy was heading to Australia for two weeks and she says on her return it wasn’t exactly love at first sight. “When I jumped him I hated everything. He rushed at the jumps, was too fast, didn’t listen and just did what he wanted. He was a hot busy mess and had himself in a white lather within minutes. I guess I have just learnt to deal with his little quirks.”

It is fitting that Jimmy has ended up in Hawke’s Bay. Early in his career he was trained by grant Cullen and now, decades later, he is being treated by Grant’s partner, equine physio Nikki Lourie. “She’s always treated my horses and they just love her.”

Cindy and Jimmy have had plenty of success showjumping and maybe unsurprisingly, he is a star in the speed classes. “They are definitely his thing. Last season at 24, he won one by nine seconds in a class of 90.” Last season he won six 1.1m classes on the trot but they have done well up to 1.25m. “He has safely carted me around a couple of 1.3m tracks too but they were too big for me, even though he was perfectly fine with them,” says Cindy. He also won four champion round the ring jumps at the Waipukurau A&P Show, the last as a 23-year-old and placing third as a 24-year-old.

When he was 19, he started throwing in a few stops and Cindy thought he was just being naughty but turned out he was in the process of blowing a check ligament in his leg which sidelined him for a while. Due to his age, the vet suggested retirement, but Jimmy had other ideas. “He just hated standing in the paddock doing nothing and would gallop around, bucking and playing up.” It’s probably because Cindy knew only too well what was going on in his head. She too has had injuries and illnesses that should have seen her permanently out of the saddle but that’s just not in her make up.

So she brought him back in slowly and they started another winning streak. Jimmy’s character is always at the forefront of everything he does. “These days he just does what he wants – it sounds bad, but he is really just cheeky. If there is a gate open, he will go through it, regardless of where it leads to. He just does it because he knows he is not supposed to. If the electric fences are off he just flicks them up and walks under them. Last winter he broke a wooden fence and dented the shed. He’s even pulled another horse’s hood over his eyes so he couldn’t see where he was going!”

But because he is entering his twilight years, Cindy says she humours him. “I am soft on him now because he is older. Some days I will walk him around and when it comes time to do trot work he just refuses and keeps walking, but the next day he can’t wait to get going. He calls the shots.”

He’s very social and loves company – whether that be foals or humans, with whom he is happy to share their food with. Cindy is confident he’ll be the first to tell her when he is ready to stop, and it is something she is very mindful about, this but hopes that won’t be any time soon.