Manion rode Sid Smooth, a 5-year-old gelding bred by Austin Blake by Smooth As A Cat out of Sheza Playboy. Sheza Playboy has also produced To Short To Play, a Shorty Lena stallion that earned $176,000.

Manion, who marked 218 and 217.5 in the go-rounds has a shot at winning his fourth championship in three years in Will Rogers Coliseum, all on offspring of Smooth As A Cat. He won the 2011 NCHA Classic Challenge with A Smooth Criminal, and took the 2012 edition of that event with Holly Is Smooth. He also won the Super Stakes Novice Non-Pro  championship in 2012 on Chet Smooth.

Taylor Carbo of Plaquemine, Louisiana, marked Wednesday’s top score, a 220, and the second highest cumulative score of 435 on Moms Stilish Cat.  Last year, he won the NCHA Classic Challenge Amateur title on the son of High Brow Cat and Moms Stylish Pepto.

The top 20 contestants marked 428.5 or better to advance to next Tuesday’s finals.