custom vintage berry
Custom Vintage Berry • Photo by Kelsey Pecsek Hruska

Custom Vintage Berry Brings Top Dollar at NRHA/Markel Futurity Sales

As the NRHA Futurity Non-Pro finals wrapped up in Oklahoma State Fair Park’s Jim Norick Arena, the sale arena heated up with quality 2-year-old prospects and well-bred broodmares. None came close to matching highest seller Custom Vintage Berry.

Consigned as Hip No. 2019 by Steve Simon, the bay roan colt walked through the sale ring with 335 days of training in Nici Schneider West’s program. His striking appearance and sheer athleticism were irresistible to bidders, including Domenico Lomuto.

Lomuto signed the $175,000 ticket as Slide Or Die LLC, acting as an agent for Italian Cecilia Fiorucci’s Elementa. The program purchased The Run For A Million Million-Dollar Invitational Co-Champion Custom Made Gun in 2018 and Yellow Jersey earlier this year.

“She loved this horse, from Europe, as soon as she saw him,” Lomuto said of Fiorucci. “He will come to Elementa and Cira [Baeck] will show him at the next futurity.”

Custom Vintage Berry is a son of Equi-Stat Elite $2 Million Sire A Sparkling Vintage. He is out of Custom Roan Berry, a money-earning daughter of Custom Crome and Otter Run Terri (by Dun Berry) with two performance-age offspring — both with show records to their credit and neither by A Sparkling Vintage.

“With him [Custom Vintage Berry], Elementa will be one of the best stables in Europe for sure,” Lomuto said, honored to represent the facility in the United States during the sale. “The bloodlines are most important for us, and he’s [an] A Sparkling Vintage, so he will complete our spectrum.”

Custom Roan Berry, whose lifetime earnings total less than $1,000, is a full sister to American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Senior Reining World Champion Custom Red Berry ($187,902), a producer of $182,251 in her own right. Their full siblings with performance records include Custom Spinderella ($4,696), Custom Eclipse ($3,988) and others.

Highest-Selling Broodmare

Hip No. 2031, Im Mizzen Gunner, left Barn 3 as the top-selling broodmare and the third-highest seller overall. The hammer dropped at $62,000 for the 5-year-old palomino mare, who was injured as a yearling and sold as broodmare sound only.

Toyon Ranch LLC consigned the package, which included an embryo by AQHA Junior and Senior Reining World Champion SG Frozen Enterprize. Russell Coiles signed the ticket to complete the purchase.

Im Mizzen Gunner, whose oldest foal was born in 2018, is by Colonels Smoking Gun (Gunner) and out of Mizzen Shine (by Shining Spark). Although her injury kept her from the show pen, she is in good company with 14 money-earning siblings. They are topped by 2009 NRHA Futurity Non-Pro Champion West Coast Mizzen (by West Coast Whiz), an earner of $53,000-plus and producer of nearly $100,000.

Read about the Select Yearling Sale here.

The NRHA/Markel Futurity Sales end Saturday, Dec. 7, with the Marketplace session. For complete coverage of the sale, subscribe to Quarter Horse News.