Proof Of Diamonds and Curtis Bass opened the floodgates with a 225-point winning performance, as the second draw in the second set of the Brazos Bash Derby finals. The $22,000 winner’s payout raised the Power Proof son’s career total to $54,916.

Reserve champion Pounce followed Proof Of Diamonds in the working order and scored 221 points under Phil Hanson for Clarke Butte Ranch; Smooth Going Cat and Matt Miller, next in working order, scored 220.5 to tie for third with 2009 NCHA Futurity champion Rockin W, who drew last in the 27-horse field, under Gary Gonzalves.

“I was hoping he would be a show horse,” said Bass, who raised Proof Of Diamonds and shows him for his daughters Jacey, 16, and Hannah, 13.

Proof Of Diamonds, an NCHA Futurity and Derby Open Limited finalist under Bass, is the leading money earner sired by Power Proof, and the first performer out of Quixotes Diamond, by Doc Quixote.

“I bought (Quixotes Diamond) for the girls to learn to show,” said Bass. “But she was so hard to catch that we ended up breeding her. We got the one colt and then we sold her.”

Hannah Bass showed Proof Of Diamonds this past spring to win the Non-Pro Cutting $2,000 Rider championship.

Curtis Bass also placed eighth in the Brazos Bash Derby with 218.5 points on Miss Rita Wood for Mike and Laurie Jones, who own Power Proof.

Pounce, reserve champion of the NCHA Derby in July, was paid $18,000 for second place in the Brazos Bash and has lifetime earnings of $83,292. Phil Hanson also placed sixth with 219.5 points on LHR Smooth Jamie May, the mare he showed to win the NCHA Derby.

Third-placed Smooth Going Cat, shown by Matt Miller for Tommy Manion, had won the first go-round with 223 points, seventh-placed Holly Is Smooth, also ridden by Miller for Manion, won the second go-round with 223 points. Both horses are sired by Smooth As A Cat.

Matt Miller also scored 220 points for fifth, riding Lethal Dually for Cown Select Horses. Miller’s three Derby mounts earned a total of $36,000.