The 2010 NCHA Senior Youth World Champion scored 222.5 points in the second set of the 20-horse finals to top Donna Flanigan’s 222-point score from the the first set.
“He’s been feeling really good for me all week,” said Carbo of Moms Stilish Cat, who he also showed to earn a berth in the Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro Finals with the second-highest cumulative score (435 points), including a 220-point win in the second go-round.
“He stops hard and is real sneaky and fancy on a cow. I can’t really complain about him too much.”
Six-year-old Moms Stilish Cat, by High Brow Cat, was reserve champion of the 2011 NCHA Super Stakes under his trainer, Clint Allen, for breeder/owner, Jerry Durant, Weatherford, Tex. Carbo purchased the stallion on the advice of his mentor and trainer, Jeremy Barwick, just prior to the 2012 NCHA Derby.
In 2013 alone, Moms Stilish Cat took reserve championships at the Abilene Spectacular under Barwick in the Open, and with Carbo in the Non-Pro Limited; and won the Bonanza Amateur championship and was reserve in the Amateur Unlimited.
Carbo grew up in Plaquemine, La., where his grandfather, Curtis Carbo, turned him on to cutting horses.
Classic Non-Pro Limited reserve champion Donna Flanigan, Livermore, Calif., relished every minute of the wait, after she posted 222 points, early in the finals, aboard homegrown This Kats Kool.
“It’s part of the sport and what makes it so inspiring and encouraging,” said Flanigan, showing in Fort Worth for the first time.
“My mare was incredible and this (Will Rogers Coliseum) dirt is amazing. The run was fast and it seemed like I was on the edge all the time. I did things today that I would never have done before on a horse. It was really a fun run.”
Flanigan, who also celebrated her birthday on April 6, grew up with cattle and horses, and became hooked on cutting in the early 1980’s, when her father, Don Flanigan, contracted to supply cattle to the PCCHA Futurity and enlisted Donna’s help, after his cattle feeder came down with the flu.
Raised and trained by Flanigan, This Kats Kool, by WR This Cats Smart, was reserve champion of the 2010 PCCHA Open Futurity under Tom Long, and has earned over $120,000 in open and non-pro limited age event competition.