Before this week, Les Bates had never ridden Little Jackson Cat. A little more than halfway through the week, he and the High Brow Cat mare were National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) $25,000 Novice Horse World Finals Show Champions.
He got the catch ride on the mare through trainer Mike Wood, who shows the horse for owner Dawn Chapman. Bates made the most of it with a 447.5 composite worth $4,287 to top the class.
“Tom Lyons owned the horse and Dawn Chapman from Arizona bought it. She rides with Mike Wood, and Mike had two in the finals and asked me to ride it for him, and so I did,” Bates said Thursday morning. “Got on her the first time yesterday when I showed her, and I had really good help – Monty Buntin and Mike Wood and Ben Roberson and Tracy Barton – and they overcame my shortcomings. It worked out pretty good.”
Little Jackson Cat, a 2010 mare out of Rey To Play (by Dual Rey), has an Equi-Stat record of more than $135,000. She was bred by the Kenneth E. Jackson Trust, of Ellisville, Missouri.
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