Jessica Banuelos Feiner, Aspen, Colo., posted a 220-point challenge, as the first rider in the 13-horse Lucas Oil NCHA Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro Limited Finals. Showing 5-year-old B Nimble, by Dual Smart Rey, Feiner held her advantage to claim the championship title. Debbie Day, Reno, Nev., scored 216.5 points with Moooy Bueno, by Cats Moonshine for reserve, while three riders tied with 212 points for third: Don Lee Smith, Bowie, Tex., on Shes Precious Metal, by Metallic Cat; Hilary Watson, Overland Park, Kan., on Shady Lil CD, by High Brow CD; and Tracey Woodward, Santa Maria, Calif., on Stylish Look Bella, by Dual Smart Rey.
Showing Highbrow Time LTE $205,900, trained and also shown in open competition by her brother Adan Banuelos, Feiner was a finalist in last year’s NCHA Super Stakes Classic Amateur Unlimited. Highbrow Time, by High Brow CD, also carried Feiner for her prior top wins – the 2014 Bonanza 4-Year-Old Amateur championship, and the 2015 Pacific Coast Non-Pro Limited and Non-Pro Gelding 5/6-Year-Old championships.
Debbie Day, Reno, Nev., showed two horses in the Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro Limited Finals – 6-year-old Moooy Bueno, the reserve champion, and 5-year-old Ringtime Style, who placed ninth with 203 points. Day, the lifetime earner of $403,448, who competes primarily on the West Coast, also placed seventh with Ringtime Style in the 2016 NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro Limited Finals, and will show the One Time Pepto gelding in the Super Stakes Classic Unlimited Amateur Finals on Tuesday, April 4.
Day and Moooy Bueno also won the Limited Non-Pro Senior championship at the Super Stakes.
Hilary Watson, Overland, Kan., will also show 6-year-old Shady Lil CD in the Super Stakes Classic Unlimited Amateur Finals on Tuesday, April 4. Watson, the NCHA earner of $146,770, showed Shady Lil CD as a finalist in the 2014 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro Limited Finals, and most recently won the 2017 Arbuckle Mountain 5/6 Amateur championship riding the High Brow CD daughter.
Tracey Woodward, with NCHA earnings of $176,415, has shown 5-year-old Stylish Look Bella as a finalist in six limited age events, including a win as the 2016 El Rancho Futurity 4-Year-Old Amateur champion.
Don Lee Smith, the NCHA earner of $285,959, was a finalist in the 2016 in the NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro Limited with Shes Precious Metal; claimed that event’s Non-Pro Limited Senior reserve title; and also placed eighth in the 2016 NCHA Derby Non-Pro Limited on the now 5-year-old red roan mare.
In the Rios of Mercedes Amateur and Unlimited Amateur divisions of the Lucas Oil Super Stakes, both first-day leaders marked 218.5.
Hardy Rogers of Madill, Okla., rode Questionable Past to lead the Unlimited Amateur division. Rogers, who has won championships at the NCHA Eastern Nationals, Tunica, and the Oklahoma Futurity, was Unlimited Amateur champion at the Cattlemen’s Derby this spring with Questionable Past. The gelding, bred by Ty Moore, is by That Sly Cat out Zack Be Quick, the mare that Non-Pro Hall of Famer Moore rode when he won the $2,000 Limited Rider division at the NCHA World Finals in 2004.
In the Amateur division, John Kaden Rutherford of Fort Worth, Tex. rode Fantastic One, a gelding bred by Jim See that he rode to a reserve championship at the Bonanza this spring. Fantastic One was also a limited open reserve champion with Kody Porterfield at the Abilene Spectacular.
The gelding is by Fantastic Cat out of Star G Peptonita. Rutherford, a former Waco Texas Futurity Amateur champion, took reserve championships at the Bonanza in both Amateur age divisions, riding Fantastic One and Hey Mr Buddy Boy.