NCHA News

Blakley Colgrove and Paradox Cat won the 
Non-Pro Super Stakes Classic. Hart Photography.

Blakley Colgrove, Boligee, Ala., won the Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro championship with 225 points aboard Paradox Cat, by High Brow Cat. Traci Burgess, Cleburne, Tex., claimed reserve with 223 points on La Déjà Vu, by Cat Ichi, and Armando Costa Neto, Weatherford, Tex., placed third with 222.5 points riding Watch Me Whip, by Playgun.

Fifteen-year-old Blakley Colgrove rode to the herd Wednesday night just hours after her grandfather, Joel Colgrove, won the Super Stakes Classic Amateur championship. It was Joel who introduced Blakley and her sister, Madalyn, to cutting and to Austin Shepard, who taught them how to show and trains their horses.

Blakley and Paradox Cat LTE $115,002 first connected in the 2014 NCHA Futurity, where Blakley won the Amateur Finals, after Shepard lost a cow on the High Brow Cat son in open competition. Joel also won the 2014 NCHA Futurity Amateur Unlimited on One Catty Cupid.

At 13, Blakley became the youngest rider to ever win an NCHA Futurity championship. One month later, Shepard won the Augusta Futurity on Paradox Cat and between them, Shepard and Blakley have earned over $115,002 on the gelding, including Blakley’s payday for the 2015 NCHA Derby Unlimited Amateur championship.

Vespaa LTE $245,095, a 2009 gelded son of CD Olena, gave Blakley her first taste of success. Together the pair placed as finalists in 27 limited age events, including amateur and/or non-pro wins in the NCHA Classic Challenge, the Breeders Invitational, the Cotton Stakes, the Tunica Futurity, the Augusta Futurity, and the Ike Hamilton Futurity.

Blakley Colgrove has NCHA earnings of more than $540,000.

Traci Burgess on La Deja Vu.

Traci Burgess raised La Deja Vu out of La Femme Nikita LTE $122,141, who she and her husband Jon purchased as a yearling, in 1999. Traci trained the mare herself and showed the Choice Acres daughter to place seventh in the 2004 NCHA Super Stakes Classic Limited Non-Pro and in 2007 won the NCHA Non-Pro World Finals. La Deja Vu LTE $11,251 and her full brother, Key West Ichi LTE $5,804, also a 2011 model, are the mare’s first performers.

Burgess is the NCHA earner of $383,942. She was a 2008 and 2014 NCHA Super Stakes Classic Non-Pro finalist on Poco San Playboy and PKR Big Mac, respectively, and also placed third in the 2005 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro Limited aboard Chula Madalena.

Armando Costa Neto and Watch Me Whip LTE $149,098 laid claim to the NCHA Non-Pro Triple Crown with their championship wins in the 2015 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro, the 2016 NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro, and the 2016 NCHA Derby Non-Pro championship. This year, Costa Neto and the 5-year-old mare won the Cattlemen’s Classic Non-Pro championship; took reserve in the Bonanza 5/6 Non-Pro; and placed fifth in the Abilene Spectacular Classic Non-Pro.

Costa Neto, an NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame Rider and earner of $1,019,299, also showed Watch Me Whip’s dam, Look The Look LTE $172,784, to place fourth in the 2011 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro Finals.