The light bulb went on with Epicenter after just one race. It’s been a slower burn with Chasing Time. Epicenter last week, in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds, won the first Kentucky Derby prep worth 50 points to the winner, and on Saturday Chasing Time will try to keep pace in the second, the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel at Oaklawn. Both colts, both sons of Not This Time, are trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, who has two other runners – Cairama and Stellar Tap – in the Rebel. Cairama, sixth of 13 in the Smarty Jones on Jan. 1, will be a longshot, and Stellar Tap, who gave Asmussen his record-setting career victory last summer at Saratoga, is seeking his first win since then while racing at his fifth different track in five starts. Chasing Time is making his sixth start Saturday, but his first in a stakes. He has been favored in his five prior starts, against maidens and then allowance foes, winning twice. He won’t be favored Saturday, not against the likes of Newgrange. But if he continues to progress, if that light bulb is fully illuminated Saturday, look out. “He’s got a lot of talent. Very youthful. Little bit distracted, still a touch on the playful side,” Asmussen said by phone. “He continues to impress in his training.” Chasing Time beat maidens in his third start, and only last time, in his fifth race, did he attempt two turns, romping by 7 3/4 lengths in a one-mile allowance Jan. 14, earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 81. Joel Rosario rode Chasing Time in his last race, but he is riding Asmussen-trained Midnight Bourbon in the Saudi Cup on Saturday, so Tyler Gaffalione substitutes for the Rebel. “Until his last race, he’d hang on a lead, didn’t necessarily run straight,” said Asmussen, who said Chasing Time, in his three works since, has “trained very impressively.” Epicenter, by contrast, was 13-1 in his first start Sept. 18, one week before Chasing Time debuted as the favorite in a similar maiden sprint at Churchill Downs. But Epicenter, after finishing sixth in his debut, came back in his second start and easily defeated maidens, and since then has been fed a steady diet of stakes, all at Fair Grounds, where he won Gun Runner and finished a tough-luck second in the Lecomte before the Risen Star. He’s currently the second choice on the Derby Watch top 20 on the odds set by Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form for the Derby on May 7. “Extremely excited about how he ran and how he came out of the race,” Asmussen said. Asmussen is seeking his first Derby victory. He has had 23 starters over the past two decades and has finished second twice, with Nehro in 2011 and Lookin At Lee in 2017. He has 20 3-year-olds nominated to this year’s Triple Crown. Five of them – the three in the Rebel, plus two others in an allowance race earlier on the Oaklawn card – run Saturday. The prospects are a mix of homebreds and purchases as yearlings, like Epicenter, or 2-year-olds in training, like Chasing Time. Chasing Time was purchased for $250,000 last April at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. breeze-up by the MyRacehorse Stable partnership. Jeff Bloom, best known for campaigning champion mare Midnight Bisou under his Bloom Racing stable, and recently elected president of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, helped procure Chasing Time after being asked by MyRacehorse to, as he put it, find “Derby-type horses for Steve Asmussen.” “This particular horse had all the makings of a classic-type horse,” Bloom said. “He has a beautiful fluidity of motion, well balanced. He worked well, incredibly professional. He had natural speed, and the look of a two-turn horse. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2022: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more “Everybody wants the sizzle and flash, and a classic horse, but at a breeze show, that can be counterintuitive. He had such a professional way about him, very mature and composed, broad-reaching stride, his gallop-out was exceptional. I thought that was the perfect horse for Steve.” Asmussen’s wide-ranging operation showcases his ability to evaluate the merits of his horses. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the sport who’s a better judge of where horses slot. In the case of Chasing Time, he was given time after that sale, and thus wasn’t part of Asmussen’s main summer string at Saratoga, instead remaining in Kentucky. To this point, he has not been given more than he could handle, letting his mental maturity catch up with his physical. Now is about the time of year when those closest to Chasing Time hope those traits align. What transpires Saturday could be illuminating.