Cutting


out of Mists Annie Oak. The pair earned $6,793.


Clark and Widows Peek go Double Down


“The highest I’d ever scored Sean Flynn & Cat Man Blue


Classic Win for Cat Man Blue at the NCHA Super Stakes


Cat Man Blue and Sean Flynn


set the bar early last night with a 225-point performance, as the sec- ond to work in the 25-horse Super Stakes Classic finals. Little Pepto Cat and Matt


Gaines, late in the second set, claimed reserve with 222 points. “I didn’t think 225 would hold


up,” said Flynn, who shows 5-year old Cat Man Blue, by High Brow Cat, for J.C. and Sally Mitchell’s Lazy M Cattle Co, Forney, TX. “The first cow I thought was the


perfect cow to start on. But the sec- ond was a lot tougher than I ex- pected. After I quit it, I went deep to find my third cow, just to give him a second to catch his air. “He’s been a great horse ever


since I’ve had him,” Flynn added. “Every time I’ve walked down there, I’ve felt like he could win. He’s cow smart and fast and strong. I’ve just had a lot of bad luck with him.” Cat Man Blue, out of Quintan


Blue, official NCHA earner of $595,000, was purchased by the Mitchell’s as a 2-year-old, for $210,000, at the 2009 Rock Creek Dispersal, where Sally Mitchell tagged him because of the freckles on his blaze face. This was the first NCHA


Triple Crown event win for Flynn, a top-ranked competitor, with $1.6 million in NCHA earnings. The 222-point reserve champi-


Becky Clark & Widows Peek


onship run was the fifth perform- ance in six days for Little Pepto Cat, al- ready a 3- t i m e s champion in 2012, and life- time earner of over $178,000. Tate Ben-


nett rode Reyn Maker to a blistering 227 to win the Classic John Deere Division Finals. The gelding is by Dual Rey and


8 SouthWest Horse Trader June 2012


(in Will Rogers Coliseum) was 217,” said Becky Clark, who real- ized her first limited age event title with 224.5-points last night, April 3, in the Non-Pro division of the Super Stakes Classic. The win was worth $18,000 in


NCHA Super Stakes prize money. But Clark also earned an $18,000 incentive from the McDavid Fam- ily Double Down program because her mount, Widows Peek, is sired by Widows Freckles. David and Stacie McDavid, of Fort Worth, offer the award to winning non-pro and amateur progeny of their stal- lions Widows Freckles, Hickorys Indian Pep, and Hes A Pep- tospoonful, who died earlier this year.


“I haven’t been doing this very


long, so you don’t want to be in the last hole,” said Clark, who drew dead last in the 28-horse finals. “But this horse is pretty much right on, if you do your job.” Allie Rogers set the pace,


aboard 5-year-old Cattahoochie, as the fourth to work in the Non-Pro Finals with 223 points which held on for Reserve. Jeffrey Gough rode Smart Lit-


tle Wood to mark a 221 to take the win in the Classic Non-Pro Limited Finals. The Nitas Wood x Danelle Boon gelding collected $6,276 for the win. Tommy Williams rode Smart


Fifteen (Playdox x Sevens N Eights) to mark 186 and earn a check for $3,207 in the Classic Non-Pro Ltd Senior. Kelsey Weeks and Holiday-


ware slammed one into the stands with a 223-point win in the Classic Amateur Finals. Weeks, a 22-year- old agricultural economics major at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, earned $4,092 for the


win. Holidayware is by WR This Cats Smart and out of Smart Readytoware. Norda Berger rode High


Classed Hottie (Spots Hot x High Classed Model) to the top spot in the Classic Amateur Senior. The gelding marked a 215 earning $4,097 for the win. Bob Kingsley rode Little Pepto


Cat to mark a 217.5 to take the win in the Classic Non-Pro Senior. The High Brow Cat x Little Pepto Gal gelding earned $4,094.


The Super Stakes Clay Johnson took Pete


Branch’s advice to heart, when the veteran champ told him not to worry about his draw. “Pete told me this has been


won from every position, so to go down there and just throw down and let it come,” said Johnson, 33, who had drawn dead last on KR Isadora, by Smooth As A Cat, in the finals of the NCHA Super Stakes. It was Johnson’s first time to


qualify for a major open finals and he won it with a 226-point per- formance that brought down the house. Branch claimed the reserve


championship with 224.5 points on Kit Kat Sugar, a granddaughter of NCHA’s first Horse of the Year Lit- tle Badger Dulce, who Branch rode to win the 1993 Super Stakes. Bet On A Cat lived up to his


name with a 224-point win under Tom Dvorak, as last to work in the 16-horse John Deere Division of the Open Super Stakes. Owned by Chad & Amie Bushaw, the High Brow Cat son out of Bet On Hous- ton earned $11,836. That Sly Bob and Tarin Rice


raised the bar early in the Open Gelding Finals with 224 points, then sailed home with the champi- onship. The chromed out sorrel is by That Sly Cat and out of Cotton Candy (DNA). Owned by Dub and Christy Leeth, the gelding earned $10,370 for the win.


Continued on page 18


Alan Gold


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