“I’ve wanted that gold buckle for a long time,” said Paula Wood, after her 220-point winning performance in the NCHA Non-Pro Futurity Thursday on Donas Suen Boon, by Boon Too Suen.

Greg Coalson and Mia Browbeater scored 219 points for the reserve championship.

Wood won the 2005 NCHA Non-Pro Super Stakes on Chita Cash Cat, and the 1997 NCHA Non-Pro Derby on Chita Cash, and was also 1993 NCHA Non-Pro World Champion. But the Futurity championship had eluded her, until last night.

“It’s just a dream come true, that’s all,” said Wood. “A lot of times, when you come to the Futurity, you don’t have that kind of a horse, so you have to cut really careful and smart.

“So when you come to the Futurity on a horse like this, it’s ten times the pressure.”

Kobie Wood trained Donas Suen Boon, as well as her sire, Boon Too Suen; her dam, Donas Cool Cat; and Meradas Little Sue, three-times NCHA Open World Champion, and dam of Boon Too Suen.

“She’s got her mama’s read and her daddy’s reach, and the way she comes through there is like her daddy,” said Kobie of Donas Suen Boon. “And she stops a lot like her mama, and has all that of Meradas Little Sue.”

Reserve champion Greg Coalson was also reserve champion of the 1999 NCHA Non-Pro Futurity on Quejanapep, LTE $202,060, half-brother to Mia Browbeater, by High Brow Cat. Quejanaisalena, LTE $329,571, a half-brother by Smart Little Lena to Mia Browbeater, was another homegrown star raised and shown by Coalson.

Amateur champions

Destini Benson, Hillsborough, NJ, hit the jackpot with her first time to show in Fort Worth and a 217-points NCHA Amateur Futurity win.

“My horse was consistent, so he handled the bad cows really well,” said Benson of Jimmy Cracked Corn, by Widows Freckles

Luke Barnhart and Hal Of A Mate claimed reserve with 216.5 points.