Charles Cody Gann, Leighton, Ala., scored 222 points riding Hevvy Metal LTE $183,380 to win the NCHA Eastern Nationals Junior Youth championship on Sunday, March 7, in Jackson, Miss. Breanna Collier, Cypress, Tex., was reserve champion with 220.5 points aboard Shes My Cherry Pie LTE $28,903, and Riley Hope Farris placed third with 216.5 on Play Purr View RG LTE $54,587.
This was the third consecutive NCHA Eastern Nationals Junior Youth championship for Charles Cody Gann, the NCHA earner of $15,887, who won last year’s title with 222 points on Hevvy Metal. The same team won in 2019, as well as that year’s NCHA Junior Youth World Finals.
Eleven-year-old Hevvy Metal, sired by Metallic Cat and owned by Jerry and Patti Gann, won the 2016 AQHA Congress 5/6 Futurity and 2016 NCHA World Finals $25,000 Novice under Todd Gann, who also showed the gelding as reserve champion of the 2016 NCHA Super Stakes Classic Open Limited and the Southern Futurity Open Classic.
Breanna Collier, the NCHA earner of $14,016, placed third in last year’s NCHA Eastern Nationals Junior Youth finals riding Creyzy Train LTE $83,011, by Auspicious Cat, and was sixth in the NCHA Junior Youth World Finals aboard Playin In The River, by Playgun. Breanna was also an Eastern Nationals finalist in 2019 with Countacular LTE $71,981, by Im Countin Checks, and an NCHA Western Nationals Junior Youth finalist on Gin Is So Smooth LTE $23,991, by Smooth As A Cat.
Shes My Cherry Pie, an 8-year-old Auspicious Cat daughter owned by Blakshear and Cindy Snyder, is the first money earner out of TR Dualin Chex, a half-sister to Cherry Chex Dually LTE $230,488, who is out of Bueno Chex Dually $153,797, the dam of earners of over $900,000.
Riley Farris, the NCHA earner of $10,557, was reserve champion of last year’s NCHA Junior Youth World Finals and placed fifth in the NCHA Eastern Nationals Junior Youth riding Play Purr View RG. Riley was also a 2017 NCHA Denver Nationals Junior Youth finalist and NYCHA Scholarship Cutting finalist on MT Macs Kat LTE $114,991, by High Brow Cat. She was a finalist in the recent Amateur Intermediate division at The Ike Classic.
Nine-year-old Play Purr View RG, bred by Mariposa Farms and owned by Mike Farris, is by Metallic Cat and out of the Freckles Playboy daughter Playgiarism LTE $42,121, dam of the earners of over $1 million, including Duals Play Kit LTE $235,489.
The NCHA Eastern National Championships Presented by 6666 Ranch continue through March 13, 2021. To read more from Sally visit her blog at sallyharrison.com