Nelson Knight and Platinum Boon scored 220 points on Thursday for the NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro Gelding championship. It was the first win in Will Rogers Coliseum for Knight, 31, who lives and works in Richmond, Va. and limits his showing to the three major NCHA events in Fort Worth.
Dean Holden scored 218 points on Playin With A Spoon for the reserve championship; Dianna Helm placed third with 217 points aboard Cat In The Night.
“I cut three good cows and was able to show what I think he does best — stop and read a cow through the turn,” said Knight. “I wasn’t afraid to cut a quicker cow because if I could keep spreading him across the cow, it would accentuate his stops.”
Knight’s father, Glade, owns Slate River Ranch, Weatherford, Tex., home of Platinum Boon’s sire, Mr Boonsmal To You, as well as Play Miss, dam of Play Brow Cat, a horse that Nelson also qualified for the Non-Pro Gelding Finals, but scratched to conserve for Friday’s Non-Pro Semi-Finals.
Glade Knight was a Non-Pro Gelding finalist (202 points) on Playbrow, out of Play Miss, and qualified on Autumn Boonsmal, who Darren Simpkins will show in the Open Semi-Finals.
It was Simpkins who trained Platinum Boon and showed him to place sixth, on Wednesday, in the Open Gelding Finals.
Nelson Knight qualified for the NCHA Futurity Non-Pro Semi-Finals in his only other event aboard Platinum Boon, a half-brother to Cat N A Hat, 2008 Breeders Invitational Non-Pro reserve champion and earner of $115,000.
Also on Wednesday, Winston Hansma won the Super Stakes Open Gelding championship for Slate River Ranch on Playin Fancy Lights, by CD Lights.
Dean Holden, real estate owner from Marietta, Okla., claimed the lead with 218 points yesterday, as the first rider in the second set of the finals, where Knight had drawn fifth.
“I got the cattle that I wanted,” said Holden. “And I was able to step up and put down a pretty good run.
“This horse is really strong and can handle this ground good, and he’s got a big swoop. He probably makes it look a little easier than it is because he’s big and strong like that.”
Holden purchased Playin With A Spoon, by Hes A Peptospoonful, at auction as an early 3-year-old, on the recommendation of Jason Clark, who had started the horse at McDavid Ranch.
“They really put a good foundation on him,” said Holden, who placed sixth with Playin With A Spoon in the NCHA Non-Pro Futurity and fifth in the Abilene Spectacular Non-Pro.