December 1, 2018
In the fourth round of the Mercuria NCHA World Finals in Fort Worth Saturday, Hashtags marked a 231 to put an exclamation mark on his 2018 World Championship, but PG Heavily Armed marked 229.5 to gain a cumulative score of 920, securing his win in the World Finals.

Ridden by Hall of Famer James Payne for Michael and Brenda Armstrong of Marietta, Okla., PG Heavily Armed posted scores of 227.5 / 232 / 231 / 229.5 / 920 to record the second highest World Finals total of the 21st Century, trailing only CR Sun Reys and Boyd Rice who tallied 924 in 2014.

He earned $27,761 at the World Finals, which catapulted him from 15th to fourth in the year-end standings. The 6-year-old stallion is by Playgun out of 1997 NCHA Horse of the Year Not Quite An Acre. He won the Mercuria NCHA World Series of Cutting at the West Texas Futurity this summer, as well as the NCHA Classic Challenge and the Brazos Bash Classic.

World Champion Hashtags, shown by Hall of Fame Rider Tatum Rice for Hashtag Ventures of Weatherford, Texas, earned $134,960 for the year, giving him a $53,746 margin over Reserve World Champion Dont Stopp Believin. That’s the fourth largest winning margin in NCHA Open World Championship history.

The 5-year-old Metallic Cat x Dual Rey Tag stallion is a Western Bloodstock NCHA Futurity Sales alumnus bred by Jim Haworth and shown by Tatum Rice for Hashtag Ventures of Weatherford, Tex. He has now earned more than $475,000.

Reserve World Champion Dont Stopp Believin earned $81,214 for the year, and has a career total of more than $452,000. Bred by Waco Bend Ranch, the 7-year-old is by Dual Rey out of World Champion Dont Look Twice. He is owned by Phil and Mary Ann Rapp of Weatherford, Texas. Phil showed him in the Open, while Mary Ann placed third in the Non-Pro World Standings riding him, along with several other horses during the point year.