Plain Catty & Jake Gorrell • Photo by Kristin Pitzer

Gorrell Clinches First Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Championship with Plain Catty

What a year for National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Professional Jake Gorrell, of Hanford, California. He achieved Million Dollar Rider status in August, and then rocked the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Open finals fence work in Fort Worth, Texas, on Saturday, Oct. 14. He rode Plain Catty to score a stupendous 225, clinching his first Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Championship.

Plain Catty (Bet Hesa Cat x Miss Plain Plain x Just Plain Colonel), a stallion bred and owned by Kevin Cantrelle, of Raymond, California, and Gorrell scored a total 657.5 on three events (214 herd/218 rein/225 fence). 

“I knew we had to be big,” Gorrell said, describing his feelings coming into the third phase of competition, the fence work. An early lead from eventual Reserve Champion Zane Davis and another Bet Hesa Cat-sired horse, Bet Hes Black (out of Soula Jule Forever x Soula Jule Star), held up for the majority of the finals. But after Gorrell and Plain Catty took the lead from the 17th position in the draw, they never relinquished it.

Besides a $125,000 paycheck, Gorrell and Plain Catty claimed a Sean Ryon Custom Saddle sponsored by Matthews Cutting Horses, an original CR Morrison Bronze sponsored by the NRCHA, a Catena USA Watch, a Gist buckle sponsored by Mike and Kelly Warner/The Final Cut Ranch, a 100x hat from JW Brooks Custom Hats by the Lattas, boots form Rios of Mercedes, a gift certificate from CR RanchWear, a cooler from Classic Equine, a CINCH jacket, product from Platinum Performance, and five gallons of UltraCruz foaming shampoo from San Juan Ranch/Santa Cruz Animal Health.