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Over $3.3 Million Awarded At the 2013 NCHA Super Stakes THE 2013 NATIONAL CUTTING HORSE Association (NCHA) Super Stakes and Super Stakes Classic wrapped up April 20 as another multimillion-dollar event for the sport of cutting, offering more than $3.3 million in cash and prizes to more than 2,000 entries from across the United States. Earning the top paycheck of $100,000 in the Super Stakes Open Finals for fouryear-olds was Hes A Hot Cat, owned by breeder, Don Gilbert, of Coushatta, LA, and ridden by trainer, Wesley Galyean, of Claremore, OK. Galyean, an NCHA Hall of Fame rider with more than $2 million in earnings, had three horses in the finals and was first in the herd with Hes A Hot Cat, a son of Spots Hot, scoring a 219—a score that held throughout the remainder of the competition. A total of 305 horses competed in the open competition for a total purse of $921,781 in the division, and a total purse of $2,062,379 in the Super Stakes. Australian native, Roger Wagner, made his way to the winner’s circle with the mare, Stylish Martini, to receive the winning paycheck of $52,833 in the
Super Stakes Classic Open Finals for fiveand six-year-old horses. Riding for owner, Dottie St. Clair Hill, of Glen Rose, TX, the mare by Docs Stylish Oak and out of Miss Martini Play, a daughter of Freckles Playboy, Wagner scored an event-high 225.5 aboard the spry bay whose moves in the arena proved worthy of her $700,000 Hes A Hot Cat and Wesley Galyean won the Super Stakes Open Finals price tag paid for four-year-olds. last fall at the Marvine Ranch reduction sale. Classic. In addition to cash, more than $250,000 in prizes was awarded, A total of 198 horses were in the lineup for the Super Stakes Classic including Sean Ryon saddles, Dennis Open for a $440,149 purse of the total Moreland bridles, Gist trophy belt $989,128 offered in the Super Stakes buckles, and other prizes.
Kentucky Reining Cup Horse Park. He rode Shepherd Star to the title, receiving 228 points from the three judges. Brown’s score put him just one point ahead of three riders who tied for second with a score of 227—Aaron Ralston on Blue Taris Glo, Drake Johnson on Sonic Chic Dream, and Pete Kyle on A Ruf Gal. Brown, of Elbert, CO, rode the grey stallion to country star Montgomery Gentry’s haunting ballad, “Gone.” It was a freestyle he’d also used to win at the Dodge Invitational Freestyle in Denver in 2008. His wife, Stacey, wrote the introduction that the announcer read before he entered the ring, in which he longed for the days of low-level technology, remembering typewriters and rotary phones. The Kentucky Reining Cup is produced by Equestrian Events Incorporated (EEI), a non-profit charitable Kentucky 138 EQUINE
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$100,000 Kentucky Reining Cup winners Shawn Flarida and Wimps Quixote Cody.
corporation that was established initially to produce the 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships at the Kentucky Horse Park. Following the success of those championships, EEI established an annual event which quickly evolved into
what is today the only four-star three-day event in the western hemisphere, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. Full results and further information on the 2013 Kentucky Reining Cup are available online at KentuckyReining.com.
PHOTO: (TOP) COURTESY OF NCHA; (BOTTOM) BEN RADVANYI
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| June 2013
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