David McDavid marked 225 on Dmac Snoop Dog to win the Sponsors Cutting.

On Thursday, David McDavid awarded Jon Winkelried a McDavid Double Down Bonus check to match Winkelried’s earnings as champion of the Amateur Classic Challenge on Cherry Chex Dually, sired by McDavid’s stallion Hes A Peptoboonsmal.

But it was McDavid who received yesterday’s award – the champion’s trophy for his 225-point win in the NCHA Sponsor’s Cutting aboard DMAC Snoop Dog, owned by his wife, Stacie.

Open Derby action

A Smooth Criminal and Matt Gaines retain their lead with 219 points, as the Derby Open first go-round concludes today.

Whiskeynadirtyglass and Phil Rapp posted Friday’s high score of 218.5 points, tying with Spooked by A Cat and Grant Setnicka from Thursday’s action.

Peek Easy and Tommy Marvin rank third with 217 points.

Tim Smith showed Whiskeynadirtyglass for Rapp in the NCHA Futurity. The pair placed eighth and earned $73,232.

Now owned by Vincenzo Vario of Panama, Whiskeynadirtyglass was started by Jaime Beamer for David Brown, who consigned the colt to the NCHA Futurity Sale at two, where Vario purchased him for $100,000.

Vario then put the High Brow Cat son into training with Carlos Banuelos. When Banuelos passed away last fall, Vario called on Rapp.

“When we got him, I had already committed to my horses (for the Futurity), so Tim showed him for me,” Rapp explained.

“I showed him at Abilene (in January) and didn’t get along in the second go-round, then he pulled a suspensory at the Fort Worth Stock Show.

“We’ve got him sound now and back to his form at the Futurity. He’s a good little horse.”

Rapp also scored 215.5 points yesterday on Catlike Kit, owned by Louis and Corliss Baldwin of Fort Worth.

Spooked By A Cat made his 218.5 point mark under Grant Setnicka for trainer Gary Gonsalves, who owns the Cat Ichi-sired colt.

“I just got on him a week ago and had never shown him,” said Setnicka, who moved here from Idaho two weeks ago and is headquartered at Tom Lyons’s former training facility in Grandview, TX.

David McDavid (left) presents Jon Winkelried with the "Double Down" bonus check for Cherry Chex Dually's win.

Jon Winkelried doubled his pleasure yesterday as winner of the Amateur Classic Challenge and recipient of the McDavid Double Down Bonus. Winkelried scored 219 points riding Cherry Chex Dually, by Hes A Peptospoonful, for $6,069 in NCHA earnings, an amount doubled by the McDavid Family, who guarantee the bonus to eligible offspring of their stallions Hes A Peptospoonful and Widows Freckles.

Laura Landers, the go-round winner with 219 points on Sweet Lil Scoot, was reserve champion with 217 points. Landers is the wife of Joe Landers, who operates Joe Landers Stallion Station in Weatherford, TX, breeding home to Hes A Peptospoonful and Widows Freckles.

“I’ve shown her three times now and each time I’ve gotten better because Roger Wagner’s teaching has helped me handle an open quality mare like her,”
said Winkelried, who hired Wagner, formerly of Rock Creek Ranch, as resident trainer for Marvine Ranch of Aledo, TX.

This was the first championship win in Will Rogers Coliseum for Winkelried, who won the 2007 Breeders Invitational Amateur title on Quintan Blue, also trained by Wagner.

Six-year-old Cherry Chex Dually was trained by Eddie Flynn, who has shown her to earn almost $200,000 in open competition. Next year, Cherry Chex Dually will join Marvine Ranch’s broodmare band, which includes the past leading competitors Quintan Blue; Dualin At Noon; I Sho Spensive; Sues Barn Cat; and Miss Martini Play.

Winkelried, who also owns Marvine Ranch in Meeker, CO, retired as copresident of Goldman Sachs in February 2009. His wife Abby is also an amateur
cutting competitor.

Open 1st go-round

A Smooth Criminal and Matt Gaines topped the first day of Open go-round competition with 219 points; Spooked By A Cat and Grant Setnicka scored
218.5. A Smooth Criminal, sired by Smooth As A Cat and owned by Roxanne Koepsell, was destined for reined cowhorse competition, until trainer Todd Bergen called Gaines and told him, “I think he needs to be a cutting horse.”

Since then, Gaines has shown the stallion as a finalist in six major cutting events to earn close to $50,000. A Smooth Criminal is the first cutting
horse for Koepsell, who is known for her top-ranked reining, as well as reined cowhorse, competitors.

Bonnie Martin on Rubys Royal CD

She has earned 30 championship titles and 21 reserves in limited age competition. But Tuesday,  Bonnie Martin claimed her first winner’s trophy in Will Rogers Coliseum.

“We’re from the West Coast, so when we come here and compete against the best of the best, it’s really an honor to do well,” said Martin, who scored 221 points on Rubys Royal CD.

Martin, also won the Senior Non-Pro championship. Her husband, Frank Martin, a Las Vegas-based general contractor,  won the Derby Non-Pro Limited Senior title.

Chad Bushaw was reserve champion of the Classic Challenge Non-Pro with 220 points aboard Snow Rey.

Nelson Knight opened the finals with a 218-point performance on Candy Cat DNA, a score that held for third place. Martin, who scored 217 in both go-rounds, was the third rider to cut.

“This being the finals, I didn’t want to spend a lot of time sorting (through the cattle),” said Martin. “Fortunately, I had a good draw and my cattle were right on top, so we had a lot of good working time.”

Six-year-old Rubys Royal CD, by CD Royal, has earned nearly $250,000 for Martin and trainer Phil Hanson.

“She’s all heart,” said Martin of the mare, a gift at three from Frank. “When that first cow started to honor us, I knew I could use her, and when  I sent her, she kept the cow trapped in the middle — we never left the middle (of the pen).

Financier Chad Bushaw, Weatherford, TX, followed Martin in the working order with 210 points on Reylena Moon. But it was Snow Rey, next-to-last in the same set, that gave Bushaw a 220-point performance.

“Both of those horses have been really good to me,” said Bushaw, who has earned over $2.2 million in almost 20 years of competition.
“This was Snow Rey’s last show in Will Rogers, so I was trying to go out with a bit of a bang with him.

“I can’t remember the last time he’s missed a finals.”

Snow Rey, by Dual Rey, has earned over $225,000.

Kathleen Moore on Sarenadual.

A third of the way through the second set of the Amateur Derby finals, it looked like Kathleen Moore might wind up Co-Champion, thanks to the 215 leading score she shared with Bernie Kirkland. But then Moore, of Madill, Oklahoma, literally outdid herself, marking 217.5 on Sarenadual for an outright win at the NCHA Summer Spectacular presented by Great American Insurance in Fort Worth. Moore’s 215 on Heres Lookin At You held up for the Co-Reserve honors.

“I can’t believe it,” said Moore, who is graduating out of the Amateur division this year. “I’ve just got two real good horses and real good help. To go out of the Amateur with a win like this, I’m pretty happy!”

Sarenadual is a Dual Pep mare bred by Glade Knight of Slate River Ranch and trained by James Payne. Moore and Sarenadual made the Amateur finals at the NCHA Futurity and the Super Stakes, and Moore won the Arbuckle Mountain Futurity on her other horse, Heres Lookin At You, by Peptoboonsmal (trained by Lloyd Cox).

“Sarenadual is just a cool mare. She wants to help you so much,” Moore said. “She has a big stop and she’s real easy to get along with.”

Moore, who had little background with horses, got started in cutting about seven years ago, hauling with her nephew, Ty Moore, and the Rogers family of Madill.

“It took me a long time to learn how to do it all, because I learned how to ride at such a late age,” she said. “Those kids could go out there and make it look so simple, and I’d just struggle all the time. They made me determined to do good.”

The $2 million NCHA Summer Spectacular is in high gear. Third Cutting won the Classic Challenge Open championship with 230 points on Sunday, in a finals field of 25 horses with combined career earnings of $3.5 million.

Tomorrow’s Classic Challenge Non-Pro finals, which can be viewed live at www.nchacutting.com, include some of Sunday’s open finalists, including Duallys Fever, Financial Sugar, Smooth Asa Zee, and Ginger Pepto.

Open and Non-Pro Derby Finals start at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 31, following the Western Bloodstock Summer Spectacular Sale, beginning at 9:00 a.m.

The sale features a special production offering, including some highly regarded broodmares from Sunrise Ranch, Fayetteville, AR, as well as eight finished cutting horses and prospects from Marvine Ranch, all trained by Roger Wagner, formerly of Rock Creek Ranch.

Boyd Rice on Third Cutting.

Third Cutting and Boyd Rice cut a wide swath in the NCHA record books yesterday with 230 points in the Summer Spectacular Open Classic Challenge.

It was the fourth consecutive win for the pair in Will Rogers Coliseum (beginning with the 2009 Super Stakes) and the second time they have scored 230 points – NCHA records on both counts.

Special Nu Kitty and R.L. Chartier marked 225 points, a winning score in past years, for the reserve championship.

“He was the best he’s ever been, dead-on the whole time,” said Rice, who is still recuperating from a broken leg, as a result of a riding accident three days after the Super Stakes.

“That’s a special fit,” said owner Carl Smith of Third Cutting and Rice. “If it wasn’t Boyd, we just wouldn’t have done it.”

Third Cutting placed eighth in the 2008 NCHA Futurity, then never looked back.

“I can hold my breath for a solid two and a half minutes now,” said Smith, who originally purchased Third Cutting for a non-pro mount.

Earlier this week, Smith’s wife, Shawnea, and their 18-year-old twin daughters went sky diving.

“There are two things I will never do,” said Smith. “One is sky dive and the other is ride Third Cutting. But Boyd and Third Cutting, they both like to go fast, so it’s perfect.

“We love to watch them. The louder they holler, the better (Third Cutting) seems to like it.”

Cutting fans will be happy to know that the Smith’s plan are for their 5-year-old Boonlight Dancer son to continue his show career in Fort Worth with Rice next year, even though he is already in demand for the 2011 breeding season.

“We bred 85 mares to him this year,” said Smith. “And Special Nu Kitty and Rey Down Sally are (among the mares that are) going to breed to him next year.”

Special Nu Kitty, owned by Wrigley Ranches, has the distinction of marking the highest score (227 points) in the history of the NCHA Futurity first and second go-rounds.

Rey Down Sally, ridden for Iron Rose Ranch by Gary Gonsalves, placed third in yesterday’s finals with 221 points.

Kristen Galyean on Harley.

Kristen Galyean of  Claremore, Oklahoma, marked 218 on Harley mid-way through the first set to win the Matthews Cutting Horses Limited Non-Pro Derby yesterday at the NCHA Summer Spectacular in Fort Worth. It was Galyean’s second big win this year on Harley, and it takes the Spots Hot gelding’s earnings over the $100,000 mark.

Galyean won the Limited Non-Pro, and placed second in the Non-Pro, at the Breeder’s Invitational. Her husband, Wesley, was an NCHA Futurity Open finalist on Harley. Wesley also showed Harley’s sire to win the 2004 NCHA Futurity.

“The last cow really made the run,” said Galyean who locked onto a black baldy for a few quick turns to end the run. “I didn’t get to cut her as long as I wanted to, but she was a really good cow. She really challenged Harley and made him get serious.”

Harley was a $50,000 purchase as a yearling at the 2007 Western Bloodstock NCHA Futurity Sales.

“He’s a lot like his dad, Spots Hot,” Galyean said. “He moves like him. He’s really special to us.”

Lauryn Crouch finished second with a 217 on Pretty Girl Cat, by Pretty Boy Cat.