Mary Kate Huntsberger, Paso Robles, Calif., came into the NCHA Super Stakes Amateur Finals on a 217-point high note from the go-round and rode out with a 218-point championship win.

“I thought it was unusual, when I walked into the herd, that he nickered twice,” said Huntsberger of her mount My Lil Lucky Duck, on Finals night. “He nickered when I got to Scott Weis, my corner help, and then as soon as I headed to my first cow.

“I thought, oh boy, that’s either a good thing or a bad thing.

“I don’t remember much about the first cow, other than it went a little fast. On the second cow, I over-rode him a smidgen to the left and threw my hand down, but he was just like, don’t worry, I’ve got this. And he sucked back on his rear and did what he needed to do.

“The same thing on the third cow. I just popped it out there and he did what he knows how to do–crawl on his belly and stop. He gives 110 percent every time. I couldn’t ask for more.”

Huntsberger, 28, began showing when she was nine, and later took six year off to attend beauty school and establish clientele for her hair salon in Paso Robles. Her husband Brian, who also cuts on a weekend basis, is a farrier.

My Lil Lucky Duck, by Blue Duck Okie out of a Doc’s Hickory daughter, was raised by San Juan Ranch. Huntsberger purchased the gelding from her good friend Jennifer Westfall, who runs the San Juan breeding program. Westfall had purchased him out of the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Sale and put him in training with Luke Neubert, also of Paso Robles. Huntsberger purchased My Lil Lucky Duck, her first limited age event mount, last July.

“He’s been extremely consistent and tries hard every time,” said Huntsberger, who won the non-pro championship of the El Rancho Futurity in her first show aboard My Lil Lucky Duck. Most recently the duo claimed reserve in the non-pro gelding division of the PCCHA Derby, and also placed sixth in the non-pro division.

Troy Randolph and homebred Cee Sophi Kat, by Sophisticated Catt, scored 217 points for the reserve championship.

“She’s good-minded and a hard stopper that has a good look on a cow,” said Randolph, Lubbock, Tex., who took up cutting in 1996, when he retired from Smith Barney brokerage firm and acquired Little Billie Smart, a palomino and dam of three 2012 four-year-old money earners, including Cee Sophi Kat.

“Paul Hansma has worked with all three of them and I owe him a lot of success since we’ve been in his barn,” said Randolph.

Read more in the Daily Chatter.