Elizabeth Quirk, Denham, La., scored 221 points riding Kattalyst on Wednesday to win the second go-round of the NCHA Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro, and claim the top cumulative score with 437 points.

Madalyn Colgrove, Boligee, Ala., who won the first go-round with 221 points, posted a cumulative score of 436.5 points riding Sweet Baby Marie, and Steve Anderson, Victoria, Tex., ranked third with 435.5 points on Littlemak.

Quirk, the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame earner of $689,528, most recently won the 2018 NCHA World Series Mane Event with Cat Sheree LTE $179,988. She also placed as reserve champion of the Ike Hamilton Futurity 4-Year-Old Non-Pro on Catillac Reys LTE $60,718.

Six-year-old Kattalyst LTE $117,710, a Metallic Cat daughter bred by Alvin and Becky Fults, claimed the reserve championship of the NCHA Super Stakes Classic Open on Sunday, April 1, under Adan Banuelos.

2018 Lucas Oil NCHA Super Stakes – April 1, 2018 – Fort Worth, Tex.

Stevie Rey Von and Beau Galyean rewrote the NCHA Record Book with a 231-point win in the NCHA Super Stakes Classic Open Finals. The score was the highest ever marked in the Super Stakes Classic and tied for the Triple Crown all-time record, set in the 2001 Super Stakes by Sunettes Dually and Matt Gaines. Galyean held the old Super Stakes Classic record with 229 points aboard Metallic Rebel in 2017.

Six-year-old Stevie Rey Von, NCHA Horse of the Year and winner of the 2015 NCHA Futurity, also scored 231 points last month to win the Cattlemen’s 5/6 Classic Open under Galyean for new owners Alvin and Becky Fults, Amarillo, Tex. The Fults’s, who purchased Stevie Rey Von in February, had owned his sire Metallic Cat, the 2008 NCHA Futurity champion and NCHA Horse of the Year shown by Galyean, as well.

Stevie Rey Von brought career earnings of more than $370,000 into the Super Stakes Classic finals.

Until Stevie Rey Von eclipsed the field, as draw 28 from 29, Kattalyst, bred by Alvin and Becky Fults, was the horse to beat and became the eventual reserve champion. Shown by Adan Banuelos, the 6-year-old Metallic Cat daughter scored 226 points late in the first set of cattle. Her closest challenger was Somethingtobelievein with 223.5 points, under owner Brett McGlothlin, for third place.

Kattalyst LTE $94,134, owned by Ten/27 Ranch, Denham Springs, La., made her debut as a 2015 NCHA Futurity Open Semi-Finalist with Sean Flynn and has been a consistent finalist in limited age events, including non-pro competition with Ten/27 Ranch owners Todd and Elizabeth Quirk.

Clayton Edsall earned his first NRCHA premier event title — and a heck of a lot of money — in the NRCHA Stallion Stakes, which he won aboard Metallic Train.
Photo by Primo Morales.
Story by Molly Montag

What happens when you win $85,000 in Las Vegas?

Ask Clayton Edsall.

The Oakdale, California, trainer scored a massive haul with a memorable win Saturday night aboard Metallic Train in the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Stallion Stakes. He and the mare marked huge 227-point fence score to win the Open and Intermediate Open titles.

That wasn’t all. Edsall also won the Open Novice Horse and the Intermediate Open Reserve championships, riding four horses in the Open finals. Overall, his horses earned more than $85,000 in the NRCHA Stakes finals and preliminary rounds.

Even after accepting his awards, Edsall was still trying to process the night’s events.

“It means a lot. I just don’t think it’s sank in,” said the trainer, surrounded by family and friends in the main arena at the South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa. “I mean, all the horses were really great and so I think it’s going to take a little bit to just process.”

Edsall’s biggest wins of the show were on horses owned by Beverly Vaughn: Open Champion Metallic Train (Metallic Cat x Sparking Train x Shining Spark) and Novice Horse Open Champion Bet Hesa Boon (Bet Hesa Cat x Flo N Blu Boon x Pretty Boy Boon).

Bet Hesa Boon, the Intermediate Open Reserve Champion, also placed seventh in the Open. Metallic Train’s half brother, Bet He Sparks (by Bet Hesa Cat) carried Edsall to an eighth-place finish in the Open. His fourth Open final qualifier was Shining CD Light (by CD Lights), who scratched after the herd work.

Metallic Train won $46,309 in the finals. Bet Hesa Boon earned $17,321 in the finals and roughly $3,700 from the Open Novice Horse title in the preliminary rounds.

“You know, when we got four in the finals, I told [his fiancé] Chelsea, I said ‘You know, there’s a chance something like this could happen’, but you know…How do you know,” said Edsall, who has lifetime earnings of roughly $500,000. “So, it’s just all pretty special, for sure.”

Edsall’s big fence score in the NRCHA Stakes Open finals came just after Equi-Stat Elite $2 Million Rider Corey Cushing set the crowd on fire with a sizzling 224.5 run on DMAC Reydar (by Dual Smart Rey). Cushing’s run was, up to that point, the high mark of the cow work, just eclipsing the 223 that Kelby Phillips marked in the first set with 2016 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Champion Duals Lucky Charm (by Dual Smart Rey)

Riding Metallic Train out of the arena after his run, Edsall knew his score had to be at least 227 to catch Phillips. Although Phillips and Sarah Dawson each had a 656.5 composite, Phillips had the higher cow work score, which is used to break ties, so the lead was his alone.

“Kelby was a [2]23, Corey was a [2]24.5 and then I felt like, [with] my two turns and…circles, I wonder what they’re gonna mark me,” he said. “And then as soon as I rode out the gate, and then they announced my score and I told the back gate guys — ‘Oh My God, I just won the Stakes, didn’t I?’ — and, they’re like, ‘Yep’.”

The run put him at a 656.6 composite (215 herd/214.5 cow/227 cow), but his high-scoring fence run broke the tie to give Edsall his first NRCHA premier event championship.

Up in the stands, Chelsea was crying and fielding congratulations. She and Edsall, who have two children – Weston, 2, and Rylee, 15 months – plan to wed in April.

“Just to see him finally get some recognition in an aged event on such a great horse, it means everything,” said Chelsea, who thanked the cow horse community for its support. “It’s so amazing, because he works so hard and he loves his horses and it’s just nice to see. I’m so proud of him.”

The Open Co-Reserve Championship went to Phillips and Duals Lucky Charm (out of TRR Ms Pepcid Olena, by Pepcid) and Dawson and Travelin Miss Jonez (by Travelin Jones x Playin With Rubies x Lectric Playboy). They each won $23,803.

by Molly Montag

Tammy Hays made the most of her chance to ride Metallic Sparks in the NRCHA Stakes Non-Pro on Saturday, March 31, in Las Vegas. • Photo by Primo Morales.

Tammy Hays is thrilled Metallic Sparks is so short.

If he was much bigger, she probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to win the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Stallion Stakes Non-Pro Championship with him.

“Oh, my gosh! I’m so excited, because that’s the first one out of that mare I’ve ever gotten to show,” said Hays, who co-owns his dam, Shine Smartly, with her father, Walter Greeman. “She’s 19 years old and I’ve never gotten to show one, because they’re all good enough to show as open horses, or we sell them or and [her husband] Shawn shows them -and he’s too little!”

Nicknamed “Midget,” the 2014 gelding by Metallic Cat carried Hays to a winning composite of 640 (209 herd/213.5 rein/217.5 cow). They earned $8,481, doubling his lifetime Equi-Stat record to roughly $17,000.

Going into the cow work, Hays’ best shot at victory appeared to be Hat Six Keep Sparkin, a son of Dual Spark out of Hat Six Little Paws (by Peptos Stylish Oak) she rode to the 2017 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Non-Pro Championship. She and the buckskin were leading the competition going into the cow work, but a 199-point score erased any hope of finishing with the leaders.

“[Hat Six Keep Sparkin] just didn’t feel like himself and I kept telling myself, you made a couple little tiny mistakes, but the big problems that went wrong were because he wasn’t feeling like himself,” she said.

Although disappointed, Hays put the poor score out of her mind and focused on what she could do with Metallic Sparks. The sorrel gelding gave her confidence almost immediately. Their 217.5-point run topped the herd work.

“I knew as soon as that cow came out [and] he was bright and quick,” Hays said. “And, when he’s like that he’s usually going to be really good.”

Hays said the championship would’ve have been possible without the help of God and her husband, Shawn.

“I always do a lot of praying before I go and I feel like [God] gives me peace and confidence,” she said. “Of course, I thank my husband, because he gets my horses ready [and] takes good care of me.”

Metal Cat and Brendon Clark just keep on trucking.

The Metallic Cat gelding and Clark knocked out another premier event title Saturday night with the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Stallion Stakes Limited Open Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Clark, of Hollister, California, said he’s learned a lot from the dependable young horse, who he previously piloted to the 2017 NRCHA Derby Limited Open Championship.

“I’m pretty happy with him. He was pretty solid all the way through, and he always is,” Clark said. “He’s not typically the horse that’s gonna blow everyone away during the rounds, in the prelims, but he’s always there at the top.”

They took the NRCHA Stakes Limited Open Championship with a composite of 632 (209 herd/212.5 rein/210.5 cow). The title paid $7,779, boosting the horse’s lifetime Equi-Stat record to more than $20,000.

Nicknamed “Banjo,” the gelding is owned by Clark’s friends from Australia, Quinton Kersch and Sandy Kersch, and Las Vegas restaurateur Jonathan Fine.

Clark, who posted his first cow horse earnings to Equi-Stat in 2015, said Banjo’s consistency has helped him as he’s started his career as a trainer. The Australian native switched to horses after a bull-riding career that included time on the Professional Bull Riders tour.

“He’s always gonna give you what you need to do. And, you know, he’s always been a pretty good fence horse,” said Clark, whose Equi-Stat record has surpassed $40,000. “He circles good and you kind of put him in position and then when it’s time to drop the hammer, you just say ‘Go’ and he does it.”

Bred by Bill Coburn, of Redding, California, Metal Cat is one of 8 money earners from the mare Tipofthestar. The daughter of Grays Starlight now has a produce record of approximately $170,000.