Twenty-year-old Justin White didn’t rest on his laurels, following his win in the 2007 NCHA Non-Pro Futurity last December on Wild Hickory Bob.

“The Futurity was nine months ago and this is another cutting and another day,” said White, who won the 2008 NCHA Non-Pro Derby on Sunday, with a 225-point performance. “I wasn’t thinking about the Futurity, I was thinking about showing my horse.”

White, who began showing in the youth division when he was 11, with the help of his father, trainer Jon White, purchased Wild Hickory Bob in June of his 3-year-old year. “He was a stud when I got him and he was pretty tough and bowed up,” he noted. “He’d been through two or three trainers before I got him and he was pretty rough, but he did so many cool things. I cut him a couple of days after I bought him and being a gelding really sweetened and matured him.”

White earned $17,774 for his Derby win. Wild Hickory Bob now has career earnings of $92,066.

NCHA Derby Open champion Boyd Rice also had a supporting role in the story behind Wild Hickory Rio. It was Rice who showed that horse’s sire, Bobs Hickory Rio, to win the 2005 NCHA World Championship for owner James Kenney.