2018 Lucas Oil NCHA Super Stakes – April 11, 2018 – Fort Worth, Tex.

Nelson Vivas, Redland, Fla., scored 216 points on Playboy is Smooth, by Smooth As A Cat, to win the 2018 NCHA Super Stakes Amateur Finals. John Rockey, Palmdale, Fla., scored 214.5 points on Dureyngo Kid, by Reys Dual Badger, for the reserve championship, while Bobbie Kay Davis, Templeton, Calif., placed third with 214 aboard RN Starlights Cat, by High Brow Cat.

Nelson Vivas earned his first, and previously only, checks in limited age event competition, in the 2016 NCHA Futurity Amateur and Amateur Unlimited Semi-Finals, riding Downtown Fort Worth, by Dual R Smokin. Before Wednesday’s win, he had total earnings of $4,712.

Vivas was introduced to cutting three years ago by David Taurel, also an amateur competitor, who had shown Playboy Is Smooth to win the 2017 NCHA Futurity Amateur championship.

John Rockey and Dureyngo Kid, winners of the 2018 Cattlemen’s Amateur and Amateur Unlimited championships, also placed in the finals of the Super Stakes Amateur Unlimited Finals. Rockey, the NCHA earner of $165,958, also qualified with Medal Of Honor, by Metallic Cat, for Thursday’s Super Stakes Classic Amateur Finals.

Bobbie Kay Davis, the NCHA earner of $27,401, placed in the finals of the 2017 NCHA Classic Challenge Amateur and Amateur Unlimited riding Looks Sweeter, by Sweet Lil Pepto, who she also showed to place (6th) in the 2017 West Texas Futurity 5/6 Amateur Finals.

Davis’s Super Stakes mount, RN Starlights Cat, by High Brow Cat, placed third in the 2017 PCCHA Futurity Open with Russ Westfall, who also showed her as a finalist (19th) in the 2018 Cattlemen’s Derby.

The NCHA Super Stakes and Super Stakes Classic continue through April 22. For daily live action and results go to nchacutting.com/events/triple-crown/superstakes