Manny Webster, Stanton, Mo., scored 224 points aboard Sue Rey Me LTE $125,592 to win the NCHA Eastern Nationals $15,000 Amateur championship on Tuesday, March 9. Melanie Penner, Naples, Fla., earned the reserve championship with 221.5 points on Spending Benjamins LTE $49,697, while Trey Bullinger, Kentwood, La., placed third with 220 points riding Blazer Lena Rey LTE $13,315.
Manny Webster, 2020 Ozark Mountain CHA Junior Youth Champion, made his major event debut in the 2020 NCHA Futurity as an Amateur semi-finalist on The Barber LTE $4,496, by High Brow Cat. The Barber, a registered American Paint Horse, is out of Sue Rey Me LTE $125,592, Manny Webster’s NCHA Eastern National’s mount, who also carried him to win the $15,000 Amateur championship at the 2020 Non-Pro Plus in Ardmore.
Sixteen-year-old Sue Rey Me, by Dual Rey, is owned by Manny’s mother, Jenny Webster-Young, who showed the mare as an NCHA Eastern Nationals Non-Pro finalist in 2012 and 2013.
Melanie Penner, the NCHA earner of $14,473, came to Jackson after winning the 2021 Ike Hamilton 5/6 Amateur Gelding division on Spending Benjamins, who also won the Open Limited with Trey Wilson. The Metallic Cat gelding, bred by Linda Holmes out of Reymember Me LTE $42,997, by Dual Rey, had been a consistent Open limited age event finalist in 2019 and 2020 with Salvador Cabral, and in 2020 Amateur competition with Lee Gandy, who won the 2020 Cattlemen’s Derby Amateur Unlimited on the gelding.
Melanie Penner was also a 2019 NCHA Eastern Nationals $2,000 Limited Rider finalist and a 2019 NCHA Western Nationals finalist riding Smart T Man Twist LTE $42,711, by Freckles Fancy Twist.
Trey Bullinger, the NCHA earner of $17,264, earned his first NCHA Eastern Nationals check in 2016 showing Justa Fancy Playboy LTE $4,071 in the $35,000 Non-Pro finals.
Last year, Bullinger showed Blazer Lena Rey as reserve champion in the Non-Pro finals of the 3-Year-Old Cotton Stakes Futurity and placed second in the Non-Pro Intermediate division, as well. This year, the pair won the Ike Hamilton 4-Year-Old Derby Amateur Intermediate and Amateur Limited. Bred by Marvin Marmande and sired by Halreycious, Blazer Lena Rey is the third money earner out of the unshown TR Dual Rey daughter Purrin Again.
The NCHA Eastern National Championships Presented by 6666 Ranch continues through March 13, 2021.
To read more from Sally Harrison, visit her blog at sallyharrison.com.
