Friday, November 23
Nineteen-year-old Ali Good of Ringling, Okla., marked 223.5 on Cat Atat Cat to win the first round of the Mercuria NCHA Non-Pro World Finals in the Watt Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Bill Cowan marked 223 on Billies Catty for second in the first round, while Mary Ann Rapp was third with a 222.5 on Dont Stopp Believin.

The show has four working rounds plus a pencil finals, with the World Finals champion determined by total money won at the show. The year-end World Championship is based on World Finals money, plus money earned during the regular point year.

The field includes two former Non-Pro World Champions, Mary Jo Milner and April Widman, and eight other Hall of Famers in addition to them: Ray Baldwin, Mary Ann Rapp, Bill Cowan, Elizabeth Quirk, Lindy Ashlock, Priscilla Wilson, Lauren Middleton, and Cade Shepard.

Good, who was co-champion in the Limited Non-Pro at last year’s NCHA Futurity on Sneakish, came into the World Finals ranked eighth in the World Standings. Her first round win leapfrogs her into seventh in the year-end race.

Good’s first major win came in the Junior Youth Scholarship Cutting on Cees Little Poo at the 2010 NCHA Summer Spectacular. With Cat Atat Cat this year, she’s won the Non-Pro championship at the NCHA Western Nationals, and the $25,000 Novice Non-Pro and Senior Youth titles at the NCHA Eastern Nationals.

Cat Atat Cat was bred by Glenn and Debbie Drake by High Brow Cat out of Miss Stylish Pepto, The 2010 gelding has earned more than $133,000, ridden by Good, and by her grandfather, Hall of Fame Rider Bill Riddle, in the Open.

Elizabeth Quirk of Denham Springs, Louisiana has an unbeatable lead for the World Championship. She brought $100,551 to the Mercuria World Finals. In the first round, riding Cat Sheree, she tied for sixth on Cat Sheree, adding $1,448 to her total. Quirk, who was inducted into the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame in 2017, was NCHA Senior Youth World Champion in 2007, with an all-time record 352 points.