Contested on the heels of the NCHA Futurity, the Abilene Spectacular and the Augusta Futurity often serve as bellwethers for annual cutting horse breeding trends. While the Augusta Futurity is in full swing (it began its seven-day run on January 20), I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast some of the data on sires of open and non-pro finalists from the NCHA Futurity and Abilene. Here is some of what I found:

There were a total of 44 finalists in the Abilene Spectacular 4-year-old open and non-pro divisions (31 open; 13 non-pro). The 44 finalists were represented by 24 sires, eight (33 %) of which were first or second-crop sires.

These first and second-crop sires accounted for 11 (25%) of the 44 finalists and include –

First-crop sires:

• Hydrive Cat with 2 – Open Champion Overdrive and SDP Hydriven Hicapoo
• Cats Quixote Jack with 2 – Non-Pro Reserve Champion Lizzard Jack and Jack Boon Cat
• High Brow CD with one – Non-Pro Champion Reyzin
• Halreycious with one – No Way In Hal (open)

Second-crop sires:

• Autumn Acre with 2 – Freckles In Autumn (open) and Hillbilly Handfishin (non-Pro)
• Atta Cat with one – Cattapep (non-pro)
• Purdy Boy Flash with one – Flash About (non-pro)
• Woody Be Tuff with one – CR First Tuff (open)

Seven of the 23 sires had over 100 foals born in their 2009 foal crops, including first-crop sire Hydrive Cat, with 131 foals. The others were Hes A Peptospoonful (183); Smooth As A Cat (171); One Time Pepto (158); High Brow Cat (157); Peptoboonsmal (133); and Dual Rey (102).

High Brow Cat was the leading sire of finalists with 6, followed by Dual Rey with 5 and One Time Pepto with 4. In addition, 6 of the finalists were sired by sons of High Brow Cat.

Smart Little Lena, Peppy San Badger, and Freckles Playboy predominate, as they have for over a decade, as maternal grandsires of sires, but Doc Quixote also made a stronger appearance through Atta Cat, Cats Quixote Jack, Nitas Wood, Quejanaisalena, Spots Hot, and Woody Be Tuff.

The NCHA Futurity had a total of 62 open (30) and non-pro (32) finalists, represented by 28 sires, seven (11%) of which were first of second-crop sires.
These first and second-crop sires accounted for 12 (19%) of total finalists –

First-crop sires:

• Halreycious with 3 – Looks Halreycious (open), Hal Ofa Secret (open), and No Way In Hal (open)
• Cats Quixote Jack with 2 – Jack Boon Cat (open) and Ima Studio Cat (open)

Second-crop sires:

• Woody Be Tuff with 2 – Open Champion CR Tuff Hearted Cat and Kittyswood (open)
• Boon Too Suen with 2 – Non-Pro Champion Donas Suen Boon, also an open finalist
• Atta Cat with one – Catta Pep (non-pro)
• Autumn Acre with one – Hillbilly Handfishin (non-pro)
• Thomas E Hughes with one – Especially Thomas (non-pro)

For complete results, with breeding information, from the 2012 NCHA Futurity and the 2013 Abilene Spectacular, click here.