NCHA News

Summer Time Fun, ridden by James Payne, and Caution Piping Hot, ridden by R.L. Chartier, both marked 226 to share the win in the Open finals of the NCHA Derby at the Metallic Cat Summer Cutting Spectacular on August 4.

Veteran Jody Galyean placed third with a 223 on Exs N Ohhs, while Payne also took fourth place with a 221.5 on Stylish Hailee.

The co-champions each earned an estimated $32,344 share of the purse, while Summer Time Fun collected an additional $100,000 in the Metallic Cat Incentive. The $300,000 incentive program pays based on owners who held 2019 breeding contracts to Metallic Cat.

Payne, an NCHA Hall of Fame Rider, and a three-time NCHA Classic Challenge winner, was notching up his first win in the NCHA Derby. His wife, Nadine, won the Non-Pro Derby on Blu Velvet just prior to the Open finals, making them the first couple ever to win Open and Non-Pro championships at the same NCHA Triple Crown event.

Summer Time Fun was bred by his owner, Ty Moore, 28, from Madill, Okla. The mare is by Metallic Cat out of Hey Georgy Girl, which carried Moore to Amateur championships at The Non-Pro Cutting, South Coast Winter Championship, and West Texas Classic. Hey Georgy Girl was also an Open LAE finalist, including in the NCHA Futurity, with Bruce Morine, earning more than $130,000 in her career. 

Hey Georgy Girl has produced earners of more than $450,000, including Let Georgie Do It, LTE $145,521, the 2016 NCHA Amateur Horse of the Year with the late John Rockey.

On her way to the Derby, Summer Time Fun was a semi-finalist in the NCHA Futurity, reserve champion at The Non-Pro and The Open Cutting, and a finalist at the NCHA Super Stakes and the Breeders Invitational. 

At the Derby, she put together scores of 221 / 216 / 221 to place second in the first round, seventh in the cumulative second round, and first in the semi-finals.

With her Derby win, her career earnings passed $75,000, which does not include the Metallic Cat Incentive. 

Co-champion Caution Piping Hot is owned by Anderson Cattle Co of Victoria, Tex. The gelding was bred by Lisa Bankston of Fort Worth, Tex. by 2012 NCHA Derby champion Hottish (Lloyd Cox) out of Fort Worth Pipeline, a Cats Merada mare that Bankston showed in Amateur classes and Chartier and John Wold showed in the Open, earning more than $165,000. Wold won the Augusta Classic and the AQHA Junior Cutting (twice), Chartier was reserve champ of the NCHA Classic Challenge while Bankston won titles at the NCHA Super Stakes Classic and Brazos Bash. 

Ironically, when Chartier took the reserve championship on Caution Piping Hot’s dam in the 2014 Classic Challenge, the champion that year was James Payne on Once In A Blu Boon.

Like Summer Time Fun, Caution Piping Hot was an NCHA Futurity semi-finalst, and they shared the same score after the second round of the Derby finals. Caution Piping Hot put together scores of 218 / 219 / and 220.5 for second in the semi-finals.

Prior to the Derby, the gelding picked up Open checks in the Ike Hamilton Derby and the Pacific Coast Derby, along with Amateur earnings under previous owner Pat Fasano at the Cattlemen’s Derby. Anderson Ranch’s teen cutter Bella Anderson landed Caution Piping Hot in the Amateur Unlimited NCHA Derby finals earlier in the show. Caution Piping Hot now has estimated earnings of more than $81,000.

R.L. Chartier, whose grandfather, Mel Chartier and parents, Randy and Kelle Chartier are all Non-Pro Hall of Famers, and whose dad is also in the Riders Hall of Fame, is himself an NCHA Hall of Fame Rider, who was notching up his first Open championship in Will Rogers Coliseum.

R.L.’s first big win came in the NCHA Eastern Nationals in 1999 when he rode Four Skeet Jewel to win the $20,000 Non-Pro championship. He won the Limited Open at the 2008 NCHA Futurity on Hay Maker. He also won the Open and $10,000 Novice NCHA World Finals in 2012 on A Little Bossy, in Fort Worth’s Watt Arena.

In third place, Exs N Ohhs is a mare bred and owned by Barker Ranch of Madill, Okla. She is by Kit Kat Sugar out of Reycy Moon and is a half-sister to NCHA Futurity champion Second Spot. Rider Jody Galyean, 64, is an NCHA Hall of Fame Rider and was the oldest contestant in the finals.

In fourth, Stylish Hailee is owned by Kathleen Moore, Ty Moore’s aunt, who purchased her for $35,000 at the 2017 Western Bloodstock NCHA Futurity Sales. Stylish Hailee is by Halreycious, out of Keep Me In Style.

Fun Fact #1: James and Nadine Payne are the first husband and wife to win an NCHA Triple Crown event in the same year. But Phil and Mary Ann Rapp won the NCHA Super Stakes Classic Open (Phil on Dont Look Twice) and Super Stakes Non-Pro (Mary Ann on Arc Catmando) in 2010.

Fun Fact #2: Three of the top four horses in the 2019 NCHA Derby have owners from Madill, Oklahoma: Summer Time Fun (Ty Moore), Exs N Ohhs (Barker Ranch) and Stylish Hailee (Kathleen Moore).