Bonnie Martin’s 223-point win in the El Rancho Futurity Non-Pro Classic, moved her mount Kittens into heady company. The victory was the 6-year-old High Brow Cat daughter’s 15th limited age event win. Only Shakin Flo with 18 and Tap O Lena with 17 have won more. Kittens is the only one of the top three still competing in limited age events

“She just loves what she is doing,” said Martin, whose husband Frank Martin, a general contractor in Las Vegas and past president of the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association, also competes. “That’s what stole our hearts away in the very beginning.”

The Martins, who began showing cutting horses 30 years ago, purchased the Russ Miller-trained mare at four. Miller continued to show Kittens for the Martins in the open division, while Bonnie planned to wait to ride Kittens until she was five. An opportunity came at the 2006 South Coast Futurity, however, and Bonnie took the reins.

“I’d never even as much as loped a circle on her,” said Martin, who won the non-pro division of the event. “It was an all-around treat, because I wasn’t prepared to ride or show her. I’d never been on her.”

Martin has ridden Kittens for eight of her 15 championships; Miller has been in the saddle for seven. Martin also won the 4-year-old division of the El Rancho Futurity with 222 points riding Ruby Royal CD, by CD Royal.

For complete results of the El Rancho Futurity, click here.