NCHA News

Bear Davis and Red Solo Catt marked 222 in the first round of the 
Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro. Hart Photography.

Bear Davis, Sacramento, Calif., scored 222 points on Tuesday to win the first go-round of Lucas Oil NCHA Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro/Limited Non-Pro competition. Davis and his horse Red Solo Catt, by Metallic Cat, were champions of the 2016 NCHA Super Stakes Amateur Unlimited division, as well as non-pro and/or amateur champions in seven other 4-year-old events.

Davis won his first major championship in the 2014 Pacific Coast Classic Challenge Amateur with Boons Trinity and has NCHA earnings of $103,313. Five-year-old Red Solo Catt LTE $90,810 is out of Amanda Starlight LTE $125,753, Mary Jane Kelley’s 1993 NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro Champion, as well as 1994 Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro champion.

Bill Cowan, Ardmore, Okla., scored 221 points riding Billies Catty on Tuesday to tie with Cade Shepard, riding Christy Hughes, for the second-highest score of the go-round. Cowan, an NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame member with lifetime earnings of $705,990, was champion of the 2005 NCHA Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro Limited aboard Miss Bay Gun LTE $48,629.

Billies Catty LTE $131,376, by Catty Hawk, carried Cowan as champion of the Arbuckle Mountain Non-Pro Futurity, as well as the non-pro reserve championships of the 2015 Brazos Bash Derby and the Southern Futurity 4-Year-Old Non-Pro. Cowan’s wife, Michelle, showed Billies Catty as non-pro champion of the 2015 Waco Texas 4-Year-Old Futurity, as well.

Cowan also qualified for the second go-round with 212 points on Shes Full Of Hope LTE $75,262, who he showed as non-pro champion of the 2017 Abilene Spectacular. The Smart Mate daughter also won the Abilene Stallion Incentive under  R.L. Chartier.

Blakley Colgrove, Boligee, Ala., rated third on Tuesday with 219.5 points aboard Paradox Cat LTE $111,523, by High Brow Cat. In 2015, when she was 13 and under the tutelage of Hall of Fame Rider Austin Shepard, Blakley became the youngest rider to ever win an NCHA Futurity title, as the amateur champion riding Paradox Cat.

During her relatively short show career, Blakley has earned $539,324. She has claimed amateur and non-pro winner’s trophies from the 4- and/or 5/6-year-old divisions of the 2014 Augusta Futurity, Tunica Futurity, NCHA Derby, Breeders Invitational, Cotton Stakes, Southern Futurity, as well as the 2015 Augusta Futurity, NCHA Derby, NCHA Classic Challenge and the Ike Hamilton Futurity.

Blakely also qualified for the Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro second go-round with Wendels Grace $72,401, who she rode as amateur unlimited champion of the 2015 Ike Hamilton Futurity and who, like Paradox Cat is also shown by Austin Shepard.

Tomorrow’s second go-round includes 83 entries with scores of 211 or more from the first go-round.