By Sally Harrison

It pays to have connections. Take the NCHA Classic Challenge Open finals on Friday, July 17, at Will Rogers Coliseum. The champion Boon San Spoon, with 225 points, is a legacy from five generations of champions bred by Alice Walton’s Rocking W Ranch.

But reserve champion Cat Atat Cat, with 224 points, represents an equally storied line through his pedigree, as well as his connections – owners and breeders Glenn and Debbie Drake, Napa, Calif., and rider Bill Riddle, Ringling, Okla.

“He (Cat Atat Cat) has a lot of credentials,” said Riddle, an NCHA Hall of Fame Rider who has shown horses for the Drakes for more than 25 years. “I trained his mother, his grandmother, his full sister, a full brother to his mother – I’ve had them all.”

Riddle, 70, was a PRCA roper and high school teacher and coach, before he followed his brother Terry’s lead and turned to cutting. Terry Riddle co-owned 1975 NCHA Futurity champion Lenaette, shown by Shorty Freeman, and was co-reserve champion of the 1976 NCHA Futurity on Freckles Playboy, owned by Marion Flynt.

Docs Otoetta gave Bill Riddle his first major win, in the 1981 NCHA Derby. Within six years of that event, Riddle would become cutting’s leading money earner, due at the time in no small part to the $1 million prize money he won for Fares Ranch atop Poco Quixote Rio in the 1987 Gold & Silver Stakes. He also earned a hefty check that year for placing third with Aglows First Rio in the NCHA Futurity.

Today, Riddle ranks tenth on the all-time list of money earners with $4,716,209.

Cat Atat Cat is sired by High Brow Cat, but his taproot stands as a testimony to the influence of both Bill and Terry. His dam, Miss Stylish Pepto, by Peptoboonsmal, was bred by the Drakes and shown by Bill to win $216,005.

Miss Stylish Pepto’s full sister, Peptos Stylish Miss, also bred by the Drakes, earned $296,598 under John Mitchell for Slate River Ranch.

Miss Stylish Pepto’s dam is Stylish And Foxie, by Docs Stylish Oak, one of cutting’s all-time leading sires and dam sires. Docs Sylish Oak was trained and shown by Terry Riddle.

Stylish And Foxie, LTE $303,739, was trained and shown by Bill for Glenn Drake, who also showed her in non-pro and amateur limited age competition.

Stylish And Foxie’s dam was Foxie Merada, by Freckles Merada, bred by Terry Riddle and Joe Ayres, and trained and shown by Terry.

Foxie Merada’s sire, legendary sire and maternal grandsire Freckles Merada, was also trained and shown by Terry, as was Freckles Playboy, the sport’s #4 all-time leading sire and #2 all-time maternal grandsire.

Freckles Merada’s dam, of course, was Lenaette, who produced many other champion offspring.