Rollz Royce and Beau Galyean registered the high cumulative score of 444 points on Thursday, following the second go-round of the Bonanza Cutting Open Classic. The 222 points earned by Summer Shandy and Jesse Lennox tied Cool N Hot and Kobie Wood for high score in the second go-round. It also gave them a total of 443, the second-highest cumulative score, while Cool N Hot and Wood tallied 442.5 points, the third-highest cumulative.
The highly competitive 15-horse finals field also includes 2016 NCHA Futurity Open champion Second Spot ridden by 2010 NCHA Futurity champ Lloyd Cox, winners of the Bonanza Classic first go-round with 224 points. Cox, who won the 2017 Bonanza Open 4-Year-Old champion Copperish, also qualified Blackish $105,133 and Hot Heels $29,048 for the finals, to be held on Saturday, February 9.
Combined earnings of the 15 Classic finalists (seven 6-year-olds and eight 5-year-olds) amounts to $1,776,902, for an average of $118,460, but the earnings spread ranges from Second Spot’s $347,758 to Addisyns Bella Cat’s $6,455.
Five-year-old Rollz Royce $175,204, sired by Dual Smart Rey and owned by Thomas Guinn, earned his single biggest check as reserve champion of the 2018 NCHA Super Stakes Open with Galyean, but the pair also claimed 2018 championships in the Brazos Bash, the Southern Futurity, the PCCHA Futurity, and the West Texas 4-Year-Old Futurity, as well as reserve championships in the Ike Hamilton Futurity and the Cattlemen’s Derby.
Summer Shandy $41,462, by Metallic Cat, is owned by Rocking P Ranch, Fort Worth, Tex., who purchased her for $375,000, at the 2016 Western Bloodstock NCHA Futurity 2-Year-Old Sale. Bred by Crown Ranch, Weatherford, Tex., Summer Shandy was a finalist in the 2018 Bonanza, as well as four other 4-year-old limited age events with Lennox in 2018.
Five-year-old Cool N Hot, the 2018 NCHA Open Horse of the Year, sired by Hottish, was bred by Paula Wood and is a half- brother, out of Donas Cool Cat $315,104, to Paula’s 2012 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro champion Donas Suen Boon, by Boon Too Suen. Paula won the 2018 Bonanza Cutting Non-Pro on Cool N Hot, trained by her husband, NCHA Hall of Fame Rider Kobie Wood, who showed the stallion to win the 2018 Bonanza Open, as well as the 2018 NCHA Super Stakes.
To follow the Bonanza Cutting live and for up-to-date results go to http://www.nchabonanza.com/