The 2020 National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity was a smashing success for Metallic Cat, who topped the NCHA Futurity Sires list with offspring earnings of more than $1 million.
The success put the stallion’s lifetime Equi-Stat record at just shy of $40 million as of Dec. 28. His son, Meteles Cat, also made the top 15 of the 2020 NCHA Futurity Sires in only his second futurity-age foal crop.
Overall, this year’s NCHA Futurity Sire list is a mix of old and new.
There’s industry legends such as High Brow Cat and Dual Rey, but freshman sires Smooth Talkin Style and Reyzin The Cash both had bang-up years to make the top 5 with their very first futurity-age foals.
This year’s group of top stallions also represents several sire lines, with sons or grandsons of High Brow Cat, Dual Rey, Spots Hot, Peptoboonsmal, Nitas Wood and Grays Starlight.
A money-winning gelding by Metallic Cat broke a sale company’s previous records when he topped the annual Diamonds in the Desert Premier Horse Sale in Fort Worth, Texas.
The horse, Jack B Metallic, sold for $260,000 at the sale held Dec. 5
at Billy Bob’s Texas in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Typically held in
Las Vegas, the sale moved to Fort Worth this year as a result of the
relocation of the National Finals Rodeo to the Lone Star State.
Though sale organizers never for sure which horse will end up being
the sales topper, they said there clearly was a lot of interest in Jack B
Metallic going into the sale. He ended up being the sale company’s
highest-selling horse ever.
Codi Gines, co-owner of sale manager MM Auction Services, said Jack B
Metallic’s status as a broke, gentle gelding trained in cutting and
roping made the Turner Performance Horses consignee stand out as a
“showstopper.”
“Everything he had to offer was awesome, so we knew that he could be
one of the high sellers,” she said. “But you just can never pick.”
Officials with the sale do not release buyer names, but Gines said
Jack B Metallic went to a home in Clark, Colorado. Second-high seller
Shine Stylin Shine was bought by someone from Texas, she said.
Diamonds in The Desert High Sellers
Consigned by Turner Performance Horses, the $260,000 sales topper Jack B Metallic was a winning cutter with a lifetime Equi-Stat record
of $5,459. He competed in the Western United States and the Pacific
Northwest for owner Paje Turner, winning money at Rocking K Productions
events, the Utah Cutting Horse Association Futurity show as well as
other limited-age events and weekend shows.
His dam, Charlotte Rey, is a daughter of the late Dual Rey who has produced two money earners in Equi-Stat: Jack B Metallic and his full sister, Reychel Cat ($14,831).
Jack B Metallic was bred by Mark and Anne Marie Pearson, of Spearman, Texas.
Brandon Westfall has done just about everything but win the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity Non-Pro outright.
He was second two years ago. Last year, he rode I Reckon So to the co-championship when he shared the win with Kristen Galyean and Coureygous.
He’d felt good about his chances this year with Fiddle And Steel, a handsome red roan Metallic Cat stallion bred and owned by his parents, Russ and Janet Westfall. However, he cut a cow in the finals so tough that he started to have doubts.
“It was a lot,” he said after the finals on Friday, Dec. 11. “Every turn, I thought it was gonna be its last.”
Fiddle And Steel hung, tough, though, and refused to let the cow get away from him. They finished the run with style, and were rewarded by the judges with a huge 227. The crowd went wild.
Westfall was grateful to his herd help, which included his dad, as well as to the horse.
“He makes it pretty easy. Any time you feel like you’re in a bind, or
the few times I showed him this week I felt like, oh boy, this is a
little hairy, here. He’s like, ‘Oh, no. I got it.
“He’s pretty awesome.”
Their 227 took the lead from the eventual Reserve Champions,
Nitreyious and Reyly Plendl, who marked a 222 in the first of the
two-set finals.
A gelding by Metallic Cat, Nitreyious is out of the mare Cherrey (by Dual Rey). Bred by Rodney Wrinkle Cutting Horses, he is co-owned by Reyly and her twin sister and fellow cutter, Regan Plendl.
Fiddle And Steel
Fiddle And Steel is one of five money earners our of the mare Lil Bit
Wreckless, a daughter of CD Royal who now has produced winners of more
than $240,000. Thanks to his $74,605 first-place paycheck from the NCHA
Futurity Non-Pro, Fiddle And Steel is his mother’s leading earner.
Before Fiddle And Steel, the mare’s earners were split between the sires Metallic Cat — Gettin Dark ($56,201) and Reckelle ($19,5900) and Kit Kat Sugar — Ringo ($60,794) and Sugarlesss ($30,463).
Like Fiddle And Steel, all four of the mare’s other winners were bred by Westfall’s parents, Russ and Janet.
Leading Western performance horse sire Metallic Cat filmed his long-awaited appearance in the hit series Yellowstone during a film shoot at the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Snaffle Bit Futurity®.
Cast and crew from the series, which airs on the Paramount Network,
were at the show in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Oct. 21, shooting for an
upcoming season of the show.
Metallic Cat’s shoot was in the John Justin Arena, which that
afternoon played host to the Open Hackamore and Open Bridle finals.
Crews set up along the concourse to film the stallion, as well as action
on the arena floor from some of the day’s classes.
Metallic Cat was led into the arena; he did not compete in Wednesday’s show.
The 15-year-old Quarter Horse stallion was relaxed as he observed the action at the Will Rogers Memorial Center. Unfazed by the film crew or crowd, he calmly took in the scene and greeted admirers.
Yellowstone Appearance
The Yellowstone crew filmed throughout the day. One of the stallion’s sons, Jittery, won the Open Hackamore finals.
Metallic Cat’s owner, Bobby Patton, purchased the right for the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity Open Champion to be on the show at a charity auction during last year’s NCHA Futurity.
Money from the $165,000 bid benefitted the NCHA Charities Foundation.
Yellowstone co-creator and producer Taylor Sheridan donated the right
to have a stallion written into script of the series.
As of the day of the film shoot, Metallic Cat has sired the winners of more than $37 million. More than $3.4 million of that was earned in reined cow horse competition.
The stallion is also the title sponsor of this year’s NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity, presented by Metallic Cat.
Quarter Horse News written by Molly Montag photo by Kelsey Pecsek Hruska View article on QHN
SJR Metallic Beau and Ron Emmons didn’t let a myriad of circumstances
deter them from clinching the Sherri Gilkerson Memorial Open Bridle
Championship at the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity.
Emmons, a National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Hall of Fame Member and Equi-Stat Elite
$1 Million Rider, decided to show SJR Metallic Beau straight up in the
bridle for the first time at the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity. According to
Emmons, the added money at the show made the Open Bridle class
irresistible.
On Sept. 17, the pairs’ careful planning and tenacious performance
made the chance worth it. Their composite of 439.5 (217 rein/222.5 cow)
brought home a $5,340 payday.
Emmons recalled his winning fence run, saying he remembered the cow from the Non-Pro Futurity Herd Work.
“I knew it was a little soft so I just hit it a few times at the end,
got its attention and took is down the fence. And it had a lot more run
than other cows,” Emmons said.
SJR Metallic Beau
SJR Metallic Beau, sired by Equi-Stat Elite $36 Million Sire Metallic Cat, is out of Shining Juliet (by Shining Spark). The 2014 stallion was bred by the San Juan Ranch of Weatherford, Texas.
According to Emmons, SJR Metallic Beau was started as a 2-year-old and was largely unridden throughout his 3-year-old year. Emmons has patiently worked with him and done a lot of “homework” to catch him up. Emmons graciously thanked the owner Jill Pierre of Red Bluff, California, for trusting the training process.
The Patton family has been heavily involved with cutting since
businessman Bobby Patton jumped into the business with a splash five
years ago. But, for all that involvement – including buying leading sire
Metallic Cat — no one from the family had ever ridden to the herd in a
show.
Until now.
And, what started as fun father-daughter time in the practice pen
during the coronavirus pandemic quickly turned into a show pen debut
and, in the case of Rachel Patton, the winner’s circle at the National
Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Metallic Cat Summer Spectacular.
Though the 19-year-old was thrilled to win the 4-Year-Old Limited
Amateur title, she said the “coolest part” was seeing her dad also
saddle up at the show in Fort Worth, Texas.
Because, as passionate as the Fort Worth businessman is about cutting
since he entered the sport five years ago, he hadn’t shown a cutting
horse himself until he made the jump from practicing with his daughter
to the bright lights of the Will Rogers Coliseum.
“We were just kind of looking for something to do [and] this was fun,” Rachel explained. “And, my dad is definitely so into the cutting. His whole heart is into it. He’s into the industry more than anything I’ve seen him be in in a while.”
Family Involvement
Although the Pattons hadn’t competed in cutting until this year’s
Summer Spectacular, the family has been extremely active in the sport
since entering the cutting horse breeding business in late 2015, when
Bobby bought 11 horses at the dispersal of Walton’s Rocking W Ranch —
purchases that included the High Brow Cat stallion Boon San and his
$244,049-winning daughter Boon San Baby (out of Stylish Baby Doll x SR
Instant Choice).
Acquisitions from the sale were sent to Rocking P Ranch, his newly
purchased facility that was formerly Jon and Abby Winkelried’s Marvine
Ranch.
Bobby
Patton entered the cutting business with his purchase of the former
Marvine Ranch in 2015, but his involvement reached a much larger scale
with the purchase of leading cutting sire Metallic Cat in late 2017. The
son of High Brow Cat is now an Equi-Stat Elite $35 Million Sire. •
Photo by Debbie Roberts.
In 2017, the family got even more involved in cutting when Bobby bought Metallic Cat from longtime owner Fults Ranch Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. At the time, the NCHA Futurity Open Champion was an Equi-Stat Elite
$14 Million Sire. The stallion more than doubled his progeny earnings
in less than three years after the purchase — recently hitting the $35
million mark.
Rocking P Ranch of Aledo, Texas, now offers stallion services for Metallic Cat, as well as Equi-Stat Elite
$6 Million Sire Spots Hot (Chula Dual x Sweet Shorty Lena x Shorty
Lena). It held its first production sale during this year’s Summer
Spectacular.
As an owner, Rocking P Ranch has accumulated an Equi-Stat record of more than $1.2 million since 2014. Some of the operation’s show-pen highlights include Rockin Sallycat’s third-place finish in the 2015 NCHA Futurity Open and Cinca Im Hot’s win in the 2017 Breeder’s Invitational Derby.
Rocking
P Ranch horses have earned more than $1.2 million since the first horse
owned by ranch owner and Fort Worth businessman Bobby Patton entered
the show ring in 2014. Among the highlights was Cinca Im Hot’s win in
the 2017 Breeder’s Invitational with Jesse Lennox. • Photo by Dawn
Baxstrom.
Quality Time
Rachel said the main obstacle keeping the family from the cutting
show pen had always been a lack of time. Her dad had a busy schedule and
she was occupied by school, first high school and then studying
government at the University of Texas in Austin.
When the coronavirus hit and restrictions were put into place for
travel, schools and large gatherings, Rachel said that opened the door
to the cutting pen.
“We were looking for things to do, and my dad’s like, ‘We have all
these amazing horses waiting to be ridden, waiting for you to ride. This
is the perfect opportunity to learn cutting,’” she said.
They went to the family’s ranch in Aledo and started riding with
resident trainer Jesse Lennox. The high-energy professional had her on
cows right away, Rachel said, quickly becoming her “personal hype man.”
He suggested showing at the Summer Spectacular, which was sponsored
by Metallic Cat. Rachel, who rode barrel horses growing up on the
family’s South Texas ranch but didn’t know much about the rules of
cutting, said she was hesitant to jump into an NCHA Triple Crown event
on her first start.
So, she showed once at a weekend show. Then, she went to the Summer Spectacular.
‘Spectacular’ Show
Both Pattons proved to be a quick study. In addition to winning the
4-Year-Old Limited Amateur with Cinca Metallic, a daughter of Metallic
Cat from the same maternal line as the family’s Breeder’s Invitational
winner Cinca Im Hot, Rachel made the 5/6-Year-Old Limited Amateur finals
on two more Metallic Cat progeny — Metallic Curveball and Summer
Shandy.
Rachel thought her best shot was with the older, more seasoned 5- and
6-year-old horses. Just happy to be in the finals, she thought her
chances at a win were most likely over after finishing 13th in the
5/6-Year-Old Limited Amateur finals with Summer Shandy (out of Pippis
Longstocking x Dual Smart Rey) and 15th with Metallic Curveball (out of
Cinca de Maya x Dual Rey).
However, there was still Cinca Metallic — Metallic Curveball’s
younger sister — in the 4-Year-Old Limited Amateur. Things hadn’t gone
well with the horse the last time Rachel rode her, so she tempered her
expectations. Plus, going in, she said people had prepared her that she
probably wouldn’t make the finals with a less experienced 4-year-old.
Rachel Patton won her first-ever cutting competition in the NCHA Metallic Cat Summer Spectacular with her family’s Cinca Metallic. • Photo by Video West Productions.
She figured she’d just focus on having fun.
“I was like, why not? Let’s just keep riding for more practice,” she
said. “And, then I ended up going to the finals for the Limited Amateur
and winning it.”
Her father rode a 5-year-old gelding named One Suspicious Mind in the
5/6-Year-Old Limited Amateur. They marked a 180 and didn’t advance to
the next round, but Rachel was impressed with how well her father did in
his first foray into the cutting pen.
She said he’d originally entered after hearing talk spectators might
be banned from the show due to COVID-19-related restrictions, reasoning
that if he was a competitor he’d be able to be there regardless of any
restrictions.
When the spectator ban didn’t materialize, she expected him to withdraw — but he competed anyway.
“He went out there and rocked it. So, that was the coolest thing
ever,” she said. “I was probably more nervous for his run than I was for
any of mine.”
The Future
Though Bobby didn’t make the finals, Rachel said her dad now has the
cutting bug and can’t wait to get back into the herd. In fact, she said
that might include an appearance at this year’s NCHA Futurity.
“We have five awesome 3-year-olds at the barn right now, and Jesse
[Lennox] will ride the top two. I’ll ride three and four, and my dad’s
looking at riding five,” she said. “So, that’s all pretty exciting.”
It’s safe to say the sport won two converts at the Summer
Spectacular. And, Rachel said, her experience shows how welcoming the
sport is for newcomers — and it dispelled some worries she’d had about
not knowing enough, or not having the skills to be able to find a place
in the sport.
“If they’re thinking about it, if they’re on the fence, just do it
and see what happens,” she said. “Because, good things can come out.”
The 2020 Quarter Horse News Equi-Stat Top 250 Sires Stats ranks the top sires over the last five years.
This article includes the entire 2020 Top 250 Sires Stats as they appeared in Quarter Horse News magazine. Stallions are ranked by their total earnings in reining, cutting and reined cow horse events.
Sons and daughters of the stallion Metallic Cat earned nearly
$300,000 in extra incentives during the recent National Cutting Horse
Association (NCHA) Metallic Cat Summer Spectacular.
Funded by Metallic Cat’s owner, Rocking P Ranch, the incentive paid money to the two highest-placing eligible
sons and daughters of Metallic Cat in the Open, Non-Pro and Amateur
classes. If horses tied, they split the incentive money for that slot.
Although $300,000 in incentive money was up for grabs, one slot in
the 5/6-Year-Old Amateur was not paid because there was only one
eligible horse in that class at the show, which concluded on Wednesday,
July 29, in Fort Worth, Texas.
$35 Million Sire
The incentives were paid out around the same time that Metallic Cat reached another milestone in his sire career — he became an Equi-Stat Elite $35 Million Sire.
While most of his sons and daughters won money in cutting and reined
cow horse — $31.6 million in cutting and $3.1 million in reined cow
horse – they also won money in reining, barrel racing, ranch events,
roping and more.
Earlier this year, daughter Metallic Cat Rose won the World’s
Greatest Horseman Championship with trainer John Swales. The four-event
competition includes herd work, rein work, steer stopping and cow work.
His leading earners are cutters Hashtags ($485,293), Metallic Rebel ($437,965) and Meteles Cat ($437, 016).
As of Friday, July 31, the 15-year-old stallion had an official
record of $35,024, 559 — and that did not include money won by his
progeny at the recently concluded Summer Spectacular.
That figure, even without the Summer Spectacular earnings, makes Metallic Cat the fourth all-time leading sire in Equi-Stat. That includes all disciplines reported to Equi-Stat.
The top three all-time leading sires are: 1) High Brow Cat
($83,992,074); 2) Dual Rey ($46,182,997) and 3) Smart Little Lena
($42,542,458).
Champayne Dreams
The biggest incentive winner of them all was Champayne Dreams, a 4-year-old daughter of Hoo Rey For Dreams (by Dual Rey) who earned $120,000 in Metallic Cat Incentive money by being his top-placing progeny in the 4-Year-Old Open and Non-Pro divisions.
Catillac Reys
In the 5/6-Year-Old ranks, the top-earning Metallic Cat son was
Ten/27 Ranch’s Catillac Reys. The 6-year-old son of the mare Tootsie Rey
(by Dual Rey) earned the incentive when he and trainer Adan Banuelos
earned the 5/6-Year-Old Open Reserve Championship.
Other Metallic Cat Incentive Winners
Other 2020 incentive winners (money, class):
Broken Haloes – $20,000, 4-Year-Old Open*
Buonovino – $20,000, 4-Year-Old Open*
What Ifs – $10,000, 4-Year-Old Non-Pro
Heavy Metal Faith – $15,000, 4-Year-Old Amateur
Mystical Metallic – $5,000, 4-Year-Old Amateur
Summer Time Fun – $20,000, 5/6-Year-Old Open
Bittersweet – $15,000 – 5/6-Year-Old Non-Pro*
Metallic Royal Mate – $15,000, 5/6-Year-Old Non-Pro*
Cody Gann and Hevvy Metal seem to shine extra bright under the lights at Will Rogers Memorial Center.
The Alabama rider and his horse won their second major title in about
a year at the famed Fort Worth venue when they took the NCHA Foundation
Junior Youth Scholarship Cutting Championship on Wednesday, July 15.
They did it by marking a 223.5 in the final round. The Junior
Scholarship Cutting Reserve Championship went to Lily Erwin and
Moonstruck Player, who marked a 222.5 in the final round.
“It was fun,” Gann said.
Gann, who recorded his first check in Equi-Stat five years ago, starting winning with Hevvy Metal in 2017. Last year, Cody and Hevvy Metal won the 2019 Youth World Championship and the Youth World Finals Show Championship with a string of great performances at Will Rogers.
Hevvy Metal, aka “Scrap Iron,” is a 2010 gelding by Metallic Cat and
out of Dual Nurse (by Dual Pep). He was bred by Cindy Ann Smith, of
Capitan, New Mexico.
The horse has earnings of nearly $175,000, according to Equi-Stat.
Quarter Horse News written by Molly Montag photo by Video West Productions View article on QHN
