Kaitlyn Wimberly of Millsap, Texas, brought a big lead to the 2016 Mercuria NCHA World Finals, but she didn’t stop there. She kept piling on the points with Light N Lily in the Watt Arena until she emerged with wins in the non-working finals, the Show Championship and the World Championship.
Wimberly strung together scores of 227, 221, 200 and 223.5 for a cumulative 871.5. That earned her $19,312, a lead of nearly $5,000 for the World Finals title.
For the year, she collected $131,436, the second highest Non-Pro bankroll in history.
April Widman won the Reserve World Championship with $103,065 riding Woodys Baby. She will also be recognized as the top rider of a single horse through the year.
This is just the third time in history that both the World Champ and Reserve have broken the $100,000 mark.
Through the year, Wimberly earned money on Light N Lily, Laredo Montana and Sir Stylish Lizzy. The first two are Light N Lena offspring bred by her father, Billy Martin. Sir Stylish Lizzy is son of Lizzys Gotta Player bred by Tim Drummond.
Wimberly, an NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame inductee, claimed her first NCHA title in the 2009 Super Stakes Classic when she won the Limited Non-Pro with Keechi Pep.
She won Mercuria NCHA World Series events at Augusta and Congress in 2012 with Laredo Montana. In 2013, she won the Non-Pro Super Stakes Classic with Light N Lily.
And this year she picked up Mercuria NCHA World Series wins with Light N Lily at the Pacific Coast Derby and Congress.
Her career earnings sailed past the $700,000 mark at the World Finals.