Woody Be Lucky, ranked #6 with $699,276, among official NCHA all-time leading money earners, passed away on February 17, according to owner Dan Hansen. The Nitas Wood-sired gelding helped NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame honoree Hansen win two NCHA Non-Pro World Championships and also carried him to two NCHA Non-Pro World Finals wins.

Bred by Craig Crumpler, Wichita Falls, Tex., Woody Be Lucky won the 2004 Bonanza 4-Year-Old Open with Don Crumpler and placed in numerous other limited age open and non-pro events under Don Crumpler and Karen Hansen.

In 2007, Dan Hansen stepped aboard, and with 7-year-old Woody Be Lucky as his main mount, earned $101,578, to win the 2007 NCHA Non-Pro World Championship.  Over the next seven years, Hansen and “Freak” became standard fixtures in annual NCHA World Non-Pro Top 10 standings. In addition to Non-Pro World Championships in 2007 and 2011, Hansen and Woody Be Lucky won NCHA Non-Pro World Finals titles in 2011 and 2012.

“Freak responds to the crowd and loves what he does,” said Hansen, following his 2012 World Finals win. “I trust him completely on cattle. He reads them so well and is so smart about it. When one is trying to be tricky and I’m not sure what they’re going to do, I just let him do it. He knows where we’re going.”

Following back-to-back wins in the NCHA World Series at San Antonio and Houston, the distinguished gelding was retired in 2015.

Woody Be Lucky is the leading money earner of Nitas Wood, whose #5 leading money earner is Woody Be Tuff LTE $351,063, the sire of earners of $4.2 million. Woody Be Luckys’s dam, Playboys Ladyluck LTE $29,675, by Freckles Playboy, was a 1985 NCHA Super Stakes and Derby Non-Pro finalist with Craig Crumpler. Playboys Ladyluck is a full sister to Playful Scotty LTE $198,001, a 1988 NCHA Futurity Open finalist (7th) under John Tolbert.