Cougars Diesel, a finalist in Friday’s PCCHA Core Balance Derby Open under Adan Banuelos, won the Derby Non-Pro on Saturday with 219 points for Bill Lacy, Crested Butte, Colo. Megan Miller, Poolville, Tex., claimed reserve with 216 points aboard Spur That Spot, as well as third-place with 213 points on Carolena Reyn, the PCCHA Core Balance Derby Open reserve champion on Friday with Matt Miller.
Bill Lacy, an NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame member with career earnings of $833,501, won the 2016 PCCHA Futurity Non-Pro with This Blonds Not Easy, who he also qualified for Saturday’s PCCHA Mercuria World Series of Cutting. Cougars Diesel LTE $30,181, by High Brow Cougar, made his career debut as an NCHA Futurity Open semi-finalist with Tatum Rice. He also carried Lacy as a finalist in the NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro and ranked fifth in the Super Stakes Non-Pro Gelding division.
Megan Miller is the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame earner of $1,110,809. Among her numerous championships, the 2018 NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro win with Dual Smart Rey daughter Carolena Reyn LTE $124,784 counts as her most recent. She also showed Spur That Spot, by Spots Hot, as a Super Stakes Non-Pro semi-finalist.
Emily Clark, Bend, Ore., scored 222 points riding Cool Cat In Shades LTE $58,714 on Saturday to claim the PCCHA Core Balance 5/6 Classic Non-Pro championship. Cameron Thompson, Poolville, Tex., and This Isa Third LTE $148,372, by Third Cutting, earned reserve with 219 points, and Kate Banuelos, Las Vegas, Nev., placed third with 216 points on Bella Do LTE $10,563, by WR This Cats Smart.
Emily Clark and Cool Cat In Shades, a 2012 gelding by WR This Cats Smart, have been earning finalist checks since 2015, when they placed second in both the PCCHA Futurity Amateur Unlimited and the PCCHA Futurity Amateur finals.
Clark earned her first limited aged event checks in 2014 with LHR Who Dat Cat LTE $68,164, by High Brow Cat, who carried her to win the PCCHA Cutting Stakes Amateur, Amateur Gelding, Amateur Unlimited Gelding, and $25,000 Amateur divisions.
Cameron Thompson, the NCHA earner of $176,606, showed This Isa Third to win the 2017 Cotton Stakes 5/6 Amateur Unlimited and earlier this year to place in the NCHA Super Stakes 5/6 Classic Non-Pro. Thompson, who placed in the 2017 NCHA Non-Pro Top 15 World Standings and the 2017 NCHA Non-Pro World Finals, won the 2013 NCHA Eastern Nationals Senior Youth on Tracker Jones, the same year that he was reserve in the Southern Futurity Amateur Unlimited aboard SF Smart And Smooth.
This Isa Third made his career debut as 2015 NCHA Futurity Open Limited champion and place third in the NCHA Futurity Open with Kody Porterfield.
Kate Banuelos, the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame earner of $633,190, has been a Mercuria NCHA World Finals winner in multiple divisions, as a Non-Pro and Amateur limited age event champion in numerous events. In 2003, she rode High Dollar Trix to claim the NCHA Futurity Amateur reserve championship, and in 2005, she earned $53,354, as reserve champion of the MillionHeir Classic on MH MillionHeir Oak.
Six-year-old Bella Do previously carried Kate Banuelos to place seventh in the Pacific Coast Winter Roundup.