NCHA News

 

Julie Jarma, who scored 220 points on Blackish to tie with Elizabeth Quirk and Candi Cat for the second-highest score in the first go-round of the NCHA Kit Kat Sugar Super Stakes 6 & 7 Year-Old Non-Pro, scored 219 points on Tuesday to claim the top cumulative score of 439 points.

Elizabeth Quirk posted 222 points to win the second go-round and claim the second-highest cumulative with 438.5 points on Catillac Reys, and to also qualify with 437.5 points on CD Super Freak. Twenty riders with cumulative scores of 432.5 or higher advanced to the finals, to be held on Friday, April 16.

Julie Jarma, Ardmore, Okla., the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame earner of $638,149, has been an NCHA Super Stakes finalist nine times, including in the 2019 Non-Pro Classic riding Hott Heels LTE $202,827, by Hottish. Blackish LTE $202,232, also sired by Hottish and bred by Jarma out of SS Blacks Lil Kitty LTE $187,137, was shown by Lloyd Cox as a finalist in the 2018 Super Stakes, and by Jarma as 2019 Brazos Bash Classic Non-Pro champion.

Elizabeth Quirk, the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame earner of $1,194,200, is a five-time NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro finalist. She showed Catillac Reys LTE $233,452 to win the 2019 Breeders Invitational 5/6 Non-Pro Classic, while Adan Banuelos showed the Metallic Cat gelding, owned by Ten/27 Ranch, Denham Springs, La., as Open reserve champion of the 2018 NCHA Derby.

CD Super Freak LTE $57,741, a 6-year-old High Brow CD daughter owned by Plantation Farms LLC, Denham, La., has been shown as a top ten limited age event finalist by both Quirk and Adan Banuelos. While Quirk did not advance to the NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro Finals with Candi Cat, Banuelos qualified the High Brow Cat daughter, owned by Brumbaugh Ranches, Weatherford, Tex., for the Open Finals on Saturday, April 17.

Banuelos also qualified for the finals of the 6 & 7-Year-Old Open riding the 7-year-old Smooth As A Cat gelding Reystylin Smooth LTE $288,933, owned by Ten/27 Ranch and shown by Todd Quirk, Elizabeth’s husband, to qualify for the Non-Pro Finals with a cumulative score of 435 points.

Kylie Knight Rice, Weatherford, Tex., was the only rider other than Elizabeth Quirk to qualify two horses for the 6 & 7-Year-Old Non-Pro Finals. Rice earned a cumulative of 436.5 points on the 6-year-old High Brow Cat daughter Miss Kitty Russel LTE $104,220, and 436 pointson Crey Zee LTE $371,892, winner of the 2018 NCHA Open Futurity under Tatum Rice, Kylie’s husband, who qualified for the Saturday’s Open Finals on the 6-year-old Dual Rey daughter. Both Crey Zee and Miss Kitty Russel were bred and are owned by Kevin and Sydney Knight, Weatherford, Texas.

In the first round of the 5-year-old Amateur, Bobby Ray Hawkins of Seguin, Tex. and Im A Platinum Kitty, by Metallic Cat, and Marcelle LeBlanc of Fort Worth, Tex. and Martini In Style, by Metallic Cat, tied for Tuesday's top score of 219, tying Monday's leaders, Stephanie Haymes on Desires One And Only and Dannica Percevich on Tallic Toy.