NCHA News

Beau Galyean and Metallic Rebel marked a record 229 to win 
the Super Stakes Classic. Hart Photography.

Metallic Rebel LTE $204,825, ridden by Beau Galyean for Thomas Guinn, Philadelphia, Miss., set a new Lucas Oil NCHA Super Stakes Classic Open record with a 229-point win on Saturday, April 1. The 5-year-old red roan stallion was bred by Alvin and Becky Fults, Amarillo, Tex., who own his sire, Metallic Cat.

CR Tuff Lucy LTE $302,785, shown by John Mitchell for Glade Knight, Weatherford, Tex., scored 224 points for the reserve championship. The 6-year-old mare was bred by Center Ranch, who owns her sire, Woody Be Tuff.

Button Down Supercat $235,116 scored 222 points under Wesley Galyean, for third place. The 6-year-old daughter of Dual Rey is owned by SMF Cutting Horses LLC, Aspen, Colo.

The  NCHA Super Stakes Classic is the third championship for Metallic Rebel and Galyean in 2017. They also won the Abilene Spectacular 5/6 Open and the Arbuckle Mountain 5/6 Open. In 2016, they racked up wins in the Ike Hamilton Futurity, the Pacific Coast Derby, the Pacific Coast Cutting Stakes, and the West Texas Derby.

Metallic Rebel  is out of Sweet Abra LTE $117,725, by Abrakadabracre, and full brother to three individual earners of $100,000-plus: Sweet Metallic LTE $130,962, Magic Metallic LTE $128,165, and Magistic Moon LTE $106,217 – all also bred by Fults and trained and shown by Galyean. Metallic Cat, from three crops to show, was the leading sire of NCHA money earners in 2016 and is on track as leading sire in 2017. He has more than $1 million in progeny earnings already this year.

Beau Galyean, a member of both the NCHA Non-Pro and the NCHA Open Riders Halls of Fame, and 2008 NCHA Futurity Open champion aboard Metallic Cat, is the NCHA earner of $2.9 million.

Reserve Champion CR Tuff Lucy, ridden by John Mitchell.

Reserve champion CR Tuff Lucy was also reserve champion of the 2016 NCHA Super Stakes Classic Open with John Mitchell. The 6-year-old mare’s sire, Woody Be Tuff LTE $351,063, is a full brother to Junie Wood LTE $523,782, who won the 2014 NCHA Super Stakes Open and 2015 NCHA Super Stakes Classic, as well as seven other major open championships under Mitchell for Glade Knight’s Slate River Ranch.

Wesley Galyean, a member of both the NCHA Non-Pro and the NCHA Open Riders Halls of Fame with NCHA earnings of $3.5 million, won the 2013 NCHA Super Stakes on Hes A Hot Cat, sired by Spots Hot, the stallion Galyean showed to win the 2004 NCHA Futurity. Wesley and Beau Galyean are brothers and their father, Jody Galyean, and grandfather, Kenneth Galyean, are also NCHA Hall of Fame inductees.

Lee Holsey and Miss Laureyna marked 219 to lead the first round of the Unlimited Amateur.

Lee Holsey scored 219 points in the last set on Saturday, to top 327 contenders in the three-day Rios of Mercedes Super Stakes Classic Amateur/Unlimited Amateur go-round.

Holsey , an NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame member with earnings of $191,952, was riding 5-year-old Miss Laureyna $55,675, by Smart Royal Rey, and will compete in the Super Stakes Classic Unlimited Amateur Finals on Tuesday, April 4.

The Super Stakes Classic Amateur Finals will be held on Wednesday, April 5, at 8:00 a.m. Katherine Vanboekel led the first round with a 218 on Sweet EE Motion, a Cat Ichi mare bred by Jon and Traci Burgess. Vanboekel was reserve champion of the West Texas Classic on the mare last year.