Phil Rapp won his eighth Augusta cutting championship last night with a 220-point win aboard My Guy Rey in the Augusta Open Futurity held at the James Brown Arena in Augusta, GA. The win came just an hour after Rapp was presented with the Equistat Award as last year’s leading money earner.
“We were early in the first bunch and I was fortunate to put a good solid run down,” said Rapp, who rides the Dual Rey-sired stallion for Georgian Charles Burger. “It was the type of situation where you kind of strike first and let everybody try to come do what they can. The cattle were a little numb and it was hard to get much of a challenge. That’s why you saw a lot of fourteens, fifteens and sixteens.”
Playful Ricochet, ridden by Sam Shepard for Marvine Ranch, Meeker, CO, scored 218.5 points late in the second bunch to claim the reserve championship. Bitty Little Lena, ridden by Lloyd Cox for Lannie Louise Mecom, was third with 217 points.
Rapp had scored 222.5 points on Thursday as reserve champion of the Augusta Open Classic on Dual Smart Rey, also sired by Dual Rey, and owned by Strawn Valley Ranch; he placed 10th with the stallion in the Western Horseman Cup on Saturday. He also placed four other horses in the Classic finals: Lil Pretty Richochet (5th); Reytilda (12th); Lil Lena Long Legs (19th); and Autumn Acre (21).
“Augusta has really been good to us,” said Rapp, who estimates that since 1991, he and his wife Mary Ann have together earned more than $600,000 at the Augusta Futurity, including the $96,110 they won at this year’s event.
On Thursday, Mary Ann placed as reserve champion of the Augusta Non-Pro Classic with 222 points on Reytilda, by Dual Rey, and tied for third with 218.5 on Lil Lena Long Legs, who she also placed sixth in the Western Horseman Open Cup. She was also a Non-Pro finalist last night on Tootsie Rey (17th).
Charles Burger, who owns a trucking company in Chatsworth, GA, purchased My Guy Rey as a long yearling during the EE Ranches Production Sale in Whitesboro, TX. The colt was started at Manion Ranch and sent to Rapp on Tommy Manion’s advice during the 2005 NCHA Futurity.
“We had a little trouble channeling his mind at first,” Rapp noted. “But he had a lot of talent and he’s matured well.
“We showed him at the NCHA Futurity, but just about everything that could go wrong went wrong. A cow ran out into the loping area, then I tied two cows together on my third cut and fought with them for 20 seconds and had a big miss. So we were eliminated from the Futurity in the first round.”
My Guy Rey was also a finalist in the Abilene Spectacular (29th).
Rapp was a non-pro rider in 1991, when he won the Augusta Non-Pro Futurity on Playboys Ruby. He claimed the Non-Pro Futurity again in 1994 on Tap O Lena, followed by Open and Non-Pro Classic wins in 1998 on Smart Little Jerry; the Non-Pro Classic on Pastels Smart Lena in 1999; the Non-Pro Futurity on Cats Full Measure in 2000; and the Open Futurity on Dulces Smart Lena in 2002.
At 37, Rapp is the sports all-time leading money earner with more than $4.9 million; Mary Ann has all-time earnings of $2.2 million.
Non-Pro title goes to Galyean
Wesley Galyean, 23, Ardmore, OK, claimed his second big win of the year with a 220-point, $19,127 victory in the Augusta Non-Pro Futurity, on Missing Addition by Little Trona. It was the first Augusta championship win for Galyean, whose father, trainer Jody Galyean, is a two-times Augusta champion.
Earlier this month, Wesley won the Abilene Spectacular Non-Pro Classic with Spots Hot, the stallion he rode to win the 2005 NCHA Open Futurity. He also placed third with Missing Addition in the Abilene Spectacular Non-Pro Futurity, an event won by his older brother Beau on Myles From Nowhere.
Jody Galyean rode Myles From Nowhere as a finalist (18th) in the Augusta Open Futurity; Wesley also tied for ninth in the Non-Pro on Shes Icing On The Cat, by High Brow Cat.
“She’s so cowy and she tries so hard,” said Galyean of Missing Addition, who he purchased from Painted Spring Farm last spring through trainer Brad Mitchell.
Chad Bushaw, Weatherford, TX, was Non-Pro reserve champion last night with 216 points on Frappuccino N Pasta, who he raised out of Cappucchino And Pasta, the horse he rode as reserve champion of the 2002 NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro Classic.