athenamadman2

Page Bowman and Athena Mad Man Win Second Augusta Title In Two Nights

athenamadman2Page Bowman and Athena Mad Man • photo by Stacy PigottAfter topping Thursday’s Augusta Futurity Classic Amateur finals with a 221, Page Bowman and Athena Mad Man marked a 222 Friday to top the Classic Non-Pro finals in the same Augusta, Ga., James Brown Arena.

Consecutive victories by the 16-year-old rider and the 5-year-old gelding, co-owned by Bowman’s parents, Mike and Libby, earned a combined $11,000. The young rider will compete again with a different horse during Saturday’s Futurity Non-Pro cutting finals. Her parents, bth avid cutters and former Augusta champions, own another horse that trainer Austin Shepard will ride in the 4-Year-Old Open finals.

“I’ve never done that before,” the smiling teen rider said following consecutive wins on back-to-back nights. “It’s kind of crazy. The first time we competed (at the 2012 National Cutting Horse Futurity in December of the horse’s 3-year-old season), we marked a 221. We just kind of immediately clicked. I’d say that it was a good match.”

Athena Mad Man, by Athena Puddy Cat and out of Puppy Breath, by Short N Slick, has now earned about $50,000 with  Bowman in the saddle.

Light Of Grace and Missy Jean Oehlhof, of Corsicana, Texas, finished second with a 218.5 to earn $7,000. Oehlhof bought the 2009 mare, who is sired by CD Lights and out of Graciela Dual, by Dual Pep, in May 2013.