horse chasing a cow
Tracey Woodward & Just Rascal. • Photo by Midge Ames.

Just Rascal And Tracey Woodward Team Up For PCCHA Futurity Title

Tracey Woodward wasn’t sure what to expect when she rode Just Rascal to the herd the first time at the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association (PCCHA) Futurity. She’d never ridden the mare before the show, but was game to give it a try when trainer Morgan Cromer gave her the green light.

“Morgan’s pretty good about knowing when something’s gonna work and fit and so I just asked her, ‘Are you sure?’,” Woodward recalled. “And, she said ‘Yep!’ So, we did it and she was so good for me.”

After riding Just Rascal once in the practice pen, Woodward showed the mare (Rascal Cats x Justbabe x Smart Lil Richochet) in the Futurity Unlimited Amateur and Futurity Non-Pro. They won the Unlimited Amateur with a 216 and then marked a 216.5 to be Reserve Champions in the Non-Pro.

The mare owned by Marvin and Paulette Teixeira, of Los Alamos, California, also made the Futurity Open finals with Cromer. In all, she banked more than $15,000. In her runs, Woodward focused on being relaxed and trying not to give the mare anything to worry about or to cause her fear.

“I guess I was just a little bit nervous that I would kind of give her the wrong cues and I didn’t want to confuse her,” said Woodward, who has a lifetime Equi-Stat record of $249,145. “And, so I was just trying to be quiet and slow and let her think and not try to send too much at her at once. She handled it. She was taking care of me.”

Just Rascal is a daughter of the family’s stallion, Rascal Cats, a 2006 son of High Brow Cat out of Keena Pep (by Dual Pep) who earned $234,382 in the cutting pen. Woodward rode him many times, especially in 2013 and 2014 while she was hauling for a World title. She also rode Just Rascal’s mother, Just Babe, and sees a lot of similarities between her futurity winner and the mare’s parents.

“A lot of the mother and, some of her dad, too,” Woodward said. “I think I see more of her dad kind of the way she moves.”

Rascal Cats’s first foal to show, a 2014 mare named Dazzzle (DNA), won last year’s El Ranch Futurity Unlimited Amateur with Woodward aboard. They also were Non-Pro Reserve Champions at that show, and the mare out of Cindys Starlight (DNA) (by TF Royal Light) has a lifetime Equi-Stat record of $17,797.

The PCCHA Futurity Unlimited Amateur Futurity Reserve Championship went to Lottie Pearl and Kris Kazarian. The 2015 mare (Dual Smart Rey x Playin Shorty x Playin Stylish) marked a 214 to earn $4,000 for owners JK Kazarian Family Trust, of California.

Click here for the full results from the PCCHA Futurity Unlimited Amateur.

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