Monday was payday, all day, for amateurs, who took home a total of $250,000 in prize money from four Rios of Mercedes divisions of the NCHA Super Stakes and Super Stakes Classic, presented by XTO Energy in Fort Worth, Texas.
Gary Rosenbach topped the Super Stakes Amateur with 220 points, from draw no. 27 in the 29-horse finals.
“My first cow was just awesome and my horse held her right in the middle of the pen,” said Rosenbach, who showed Scooters Daisy Dukes, his NCHA Futurity Amateur Finals mount.
“My second cow was good, but when I went back for our third cow, it felt kind of numb, as I was driving through the herd, and ended up cutting my first cow again and finished up strong.”
Rosenbach also claimed co-reserve in the Super Stakes Amateur Classic with 214 points aboard 6-year-old gelding Tapt Out, half-brother, by Smart Little Lena, to all-time leading mare Dont Look Twice.
Scooters Daisy Dukes, a daughter of Dual Smart Rey, is slated for the court of Rosenbach’s stallion Boon Too Suen, sire of 2012 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro champion and Open finalist Donas Suen Boon.
Rosenbach, a retired East Coast hedge fund manager and finalist in all four Amateur divisions on Monday, lives in Vail, Colo. and owns a ranch in Weatherford, Tex., managed by trainer Michael Cooper.
Robert Tieperman, Jewett, Tex., scored 218 points on Sugar Fatz, as Super Stakes Amateur reserve champion, and also marked 214 points for reserve in the Amateur Unlimited, on the gelded son of Smart Sugar Badger. These are the second and third amateur reserve titles this year for Tieperman and Sugar Fatz, who placed second in the Tunica Futurity, and also took sixth in the amateur unlimited division.
Denise Seiz and Cat Black I secured the Super Stakes Amateur Classic championship with 215 points, while Phil Wilson and Rip Rap Cat shared reserve with Gary Rosenbach.
“I just really started showing her last fall,” said Seiz, a retired CPA from Cedartown, Ga. “I ride with Grant Setnicka and he does a fantastic job.”
Seiz also went reserve with the Smooth As A Cat daughter in the Tunica Futurity Amateur Classic, where Setnicka took reserve in the Novice Classic.
Jaylee Hall scored 219.5 points on Mae C Grey to win the Unlimited Amateur, while Jacob Taurel was reserve with 218.5 on Smartys Hot Date.
Hall previously placed seventh on Mae C Grey, by Dulces Smart Lena, in the Bonanza Amateur division.
Bill Helm dominated the Amateur Unlimited with a 217-point win plus the Senior title on Boons Playin who he also rode to win the Arbuckle Mountain Amateur championship, while his wife, Dianna, claimed reserve in the Arbuckle Non-Pro division, and won the Non-Pro Novice division of the same event.