Boon San Spoon and rider Jesse Lennox scored 225 points on Friday, July 17, to claim the title of 2015 NCHA Classic Challenge Open Champion for Walton’s Rocking W Ranch. Millsap, Tex. Cat Atat Cat and Bill Riddle marked 224 points to takes reserve for Glenn and Debbie Drake, Napa, Calif., while Donas Suen Boon and Kobie Wood placed third with 220.5 for Paul Wood, Stephenville, Tex.
Six-year-old Boon San Spoon made her debut, under Lennox, as a finalist in the 2012 NCHA Futurity Open Ltd, and as a 4-year-old placed in the finals of 12 major events, including the Brazos Bash, where she won the Open Ltd championship and was reserve champion of the Open division.
“She’s been shown a lot and she’s really responsible,” said Lennox of Boon San Spoon, who he trained and has shown all of her career. “Tonight I just tried to throw down as soon as I could and stay out of her way.
“She’s very fast and it can be tricky to stay out of her way. Alice (Walton, owner of Rocking W Ranch) has been working with me a lot on (Boon San Spoon’s) angles. She is my eyes on the ground at home, and I feel like tonight we really hit the nail on the head.”
Boon San Spoon, by Hes A Peptospoonful, is the product of four generations of Walton’s Rocking W Ranch breeding. She is a half-sister to 2009 NCHA Futurity champion Rockin W, and out Boon San Kitty LTE $565,504, 2004 NCHA Horse of the Year.
Lennox also tied for seventh place, with 217 points, on 5-year-old Boon San Baby. Also owned and bred by Walton’s Rocking W Ranch and trained by Lennox, Boon San Baby LTE $198,251 is by Walton Ranch sire Boon San and out of Stylish Baby Doll LTE $201,425, winner of the 2006 NCHA Derby.
Boon San Spoon, Boon San Baby, Boon San, Stylish Baby Doll, as well more than 100 other Walton-bred horses, embryos, and equipment will be offered at public auction on September 21 and 22, at the Rocking W Ranch Absolute Dispersal, conducted by Western Bloodstock Ltd., at the Rocking W Ranch, in Millsap, Tex.
“It’s time for me to pull back and focus on other things that really matter to me,” said Alice Walton, 65, who Time magazine recognized as one of the world’s most influential people in 2012, and who has owned and shown cutting horses since she was 14. “I have loved this business and this way of life. And let me say, first and foremost, no matter who owns the horses, I will always be rooting for them, because I will always consider them ‘my’ horses.”
While Lennox, 26, was the second youngest rider in the finals, Bill Riddle, 70, was the oldest as reserve champion on Cat Atat Cat, by High Brow Cat out of Miss Stylish Pepto. While the $25,000 in earnings he brought to Fort Worth ranked on the lower end of the finalists, like the winner, he had depth of breeding behind him.
Riddle, who has shown horses for Glenn and Debbie Drake for a quarter-century, noted that Cat Atat Cat’s dam, Miss Stylish Pepto, earned more than $200,000 and her dam, Stylish And Foxie, earned $300,000 and has produced earners of $750,000.
“I trained his grandmother, his mother, his full sister, a full brother to his mother,” Riddle said, “and this is one of the nicest ones. This sucker is an athlete. He’s now thinking about cutting instead of just thinking about being a stud, and that’s helping him quite a bit.
“This was the softest I’ve ever had a horse feel, going that fast. He’s as soft as a feather and he can fly.”
