Blakley Colgrove and Dealnwithacoolcat • Hart PhotosBlakley Colgrove and Sassy Lil Sue competed at the Augusta Futurity cutting for the first time this year, but after winning Thursday’s 4-Year-Old Amateur title with a 220 to earn $8,388, there’s a good chance the 12-year-old rider and her 4-year-old mare will return.
“It was fun, it was good and it was exciting,” said the Boligee, Ala., rider. She credits her grandfather, Joel Colgrove Sr., for getting her started in the sport. Colgrove’s sister, 14-year-old Madalyn, also competed well at the Augusta, Ga., show during her first visit.
The young riders’ grandfather bought Sassy Lil Sue, sired by High Brow CD and out of the Peptos Stylish Oak mare Peptos Stylish Sue, as a late yearling at the NCHA Futurity Sales. He then decided that his youngest granddaughter needed to ride her. Summerdale, Ala., trainer Austin Shepard trains the horses both sisters are competing with this year.
“My grandfather and him are good friends and we’ve known him for a while,” said Colgrove.
Sassy Lil Sue earned $1,800 as the Augusta Futurity’s 4-Year-Old Amateur Champion, plus an extra $6,588 because her breeder Lee Holsey, of Crockett, Texas, participated in the Augusta Futurity Stallion Incentive program.
“I knew I had a shot at earning that,” Colgrove said of the incentive. The money she earned at the show will head to the bank as part of her future college fund, she added.
Two horse and rider duos, Laura Collins, of Lincoln, Ill., riding PC Double Crown, and Page Bowman, of Simpsonville, Ky., riding, Roamin Cat, were Co-Reserve Champions with 214s to earn $1,400 each. Collins’ homebred horse is a full brother to mares her husband, Patrick, finished second and third with in Thursday’s Champions Cup Non-Pro. Bowman also won the Classic Amateur riding Athena Mad Man.
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