Cox Takes Co-Champion Honors at Bonanza Cutting

article by QHN

While there were several riders that had multiple horses in the 4-Year-Old Open finals at the Bonanza Cutting in Weatherford, Texas, one rider in particular had his work cut out for him. Lloyd Cox, of Marietta, Oklahoma, got all six of his horses from the first go into the finals, competing twice in the second bunch and four times in the third bunch. The hard work paid off when he rode two horses to a 223 and tied for the Championship.

“It was different,” said Cox, who surpassed the $8 million milestone at the Bonanza. “It’s a lot of work getting them ready and trying to get them all showed. I got everything showed but one. It doesn’t happen very often, so I was pretty pleased about getting them all in there.”

Though both of his winning runs were at the bottom of the final set of cows, Cox had a game plan that he was able to stick with.

“We cut all the cattle we pretty much wanted to cut that we thought were good that were left, and they turned out to be good,” he explained. “But I cut them good, which makes the difference, especially in this pen. They’re two really nice horses, so they then took over and did their jobs.”

He first marked the high score on Copperish (by Metallic Cat), who is owned by Jimmie Miller Smith, of Geary, Oklahoma. The sorrel mare was bred by Double Dove Ranch, who consigned her to the 2014 National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity Select Yearling Sale. Smith purchased her for $210,000, making her the sale’s second-highest seller.

Lcox CopperishCopperish & Lloyd CoxCopperish is out of the Docs Stylish Oak mare Stylish Play Lena, who boasts lifetime earnings of $289,624. She is an Equi-Stat Elite $1 Million Dam with 17 money-earning offspring. She has also produced Pepto Boom (by Peptoboonsmal, $308,095), Hottish (by Spots Hot, $301,200), Smooth Talkin Style (by Smooth As A Cat, $300,379), Equi-Stat Elite $1 Million Sire Halreycious (by Dual Rey, $227,459), and others.

“She’s a great mare,” Cox said of “Copper.” “I made the semis at the [NCHA] Futurity, but I didn’t make the finals. I didn’t get showed very well. She’s been good pretty much everywhere since the Futurity. I didn’t get her showed every time in the finals and stuff like you want to, but she was good. It wasn’t her fault.”

His second co-champion was Nothing Elz Matters (by Metallic Cat), a homebred belonging to he and his wife Christina. Nothing Elz Matters is out of Little Peppy Jazz (by Smart Little Lena), who has produced five offspring with earnings of more than $90,000.

“He’s just a little bitty ol’ horse, but he’s real cowy and he moves really good and tries really hard,” Cox said of “Rajah.”

For the co-championships, Cox amassed $43,450. He picked up an additional $18,363 from his other four horses in the finals.