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Wes Galyean of Claremore, Oklahoma, riding event champion Hes A Hot Cat, and two other horses, Lil Rattler and Tattoos On This Town, earned a whopping $176,913 Saturday night in the finals of the NCHA Super Stakes Open at Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum.

 

Galyean, the 2004 NCHA Futurity Open Champion on the stallion Spots Hot, earned the $100,000 top prize in Fort Worth, Texas, with a 219 riding “Spot’s” 4-year-old son, Hes A Hot Cat (Spots Hot out of Cassies Kit Cat by High Brow Cat).

 

“I was lucky enough to make it to the finals on three horses. I just made my mind up that on all three, I wasn’t going to worry about losing. I was not going to play it safe. I was just going to go try to win it with all three horses. It worked out,” said Galyean, who also rode Lil Rattler and Tattoos On This Town in the finals.

 

Lil Rattler (Dual Rey out of Highbrow Supercat by High Brow Cat) the mare that topped the Open semifinals with a 218.5 score Friday, finished fourth with a 216.5 in Saturday’s finals to earn $46,244. Steven Feiner, Aspen, Colo., owns Lil Rattler. Galyean and a stallion owned by he and wife Kristen, Tattoos On This Town (Spots Hot out of Heavenly Reys by Dual Rey), tied for fifth with a 216, a finish worth $30,669.

 

Hes A Hot Cat, bred and owned by Don Gilbert, Coushatta, La., and Galyean, also placed third during the April 16 Super Stakes Gelding Open finals with a 217 to earn $8,873. The horse will earn the $10,000 Novice Open title and another cash prize based on being the highest advancing horse without $10,000 in prior earnings.

 

“He’s real athletic and the cows we cut were stingy, quick and fast. That let him really get across the cow and bury it in the ground,” said Galyean, who was showing Hes A Hot Cat for the first time since a suspensory injury grounded the gelding last July.

 

“A lot of them don’t make it back after they have missed so much (training),” Galyean added. “But he got better through this show. And in the finals he really read the cattle and let me ride him aggressively.”

 

Quarter Horse News
Written by Mark Thompson

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