Reyny Day Nickle and Daniel Sanchez are on a hot streak in 2020.
In this strange, coronavirus-shortened season there’s been few opportunities to horse show, but on Saturday, June 11, the son of Shiners Nickle and Sanchez won their second National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) premier event championship of the year.
This time, they won the NRCHA Derby Limited Open with a composite of 656 (219 herd/217 rein/220 cow). They also placed third in the Intermediate Open, making for a better than $10,000 haul for owner Donna Russo, of Gilroy, California.
Reyny Day Nickle is an honest sort, Sanchez said, and usually lets his rider know when he’s ready to show. He gave good vibes in Arizona, where the Derby was held at WestWorld of Scottsdale.
“Since day one there he felt awesome in the practice pen and he felt like he was dialed in and just ready to go show,” he said.
Sanchez has been showing the horse since he was three years old, when the horse made the the Futurity Limited Open finals at the 2018 Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity. In 2019, they won money at the Wild Rag Classic, Southwest Reined Cow Horse Association Rode to Reno Futurity and at the NRCHA Hackamore Classic.
The horse’s biggest win before Saturday night came earlier this year when he and Sanchez won the Limited Open at the Tres Osos Cow Horse Derby, which was held during the NRCHA Celebration of Champions. They also made the finals in the Open and Intermediate Open.
Sanchez used to work for trainer Justin Wright, who won the 2020 NRCHA Derby Open, but made the move to Texas to focus on his cutting. He lives in Poolville, where he works for Equi-Stat Elite $3 Million Rider Matt Miller.
Reyny Day Nickle is his only remaining cow horse, and Sanchez believes the two years he’s spent working for Miller has improved his and the stallion’s performance in the herd work.
“Matt’s definitely slowed me down in the cutting and made me focus on the little stuff in the cutting, and how to train my horses to be a lot more cow smart and take more iniative on what they do when they’re working a cow,” he said.
Sanchez said he was thankful to Wright and Miller for their influence on his career, as well as for help he’s received in recent years in Texas from Equi-Stat Elite $6 Million Rider Boyd Rice.
“The three of them have helped me be who I am right now as a horse trainer, and I’m grateful to them as well as Donna Russo,” he said.
The combined $10,350 in checks from Reyny Day Nickle’s Limited Open win and Intermediate Open placing nearly doubled his lifetime earnings to more than $21,000. He’s one of 10 money earners out of the mare Tootsie Rey, a daughter of Dual Rey who has a produce record of $250,000. Her leading earners are cutters Catillac Reys ($316,323, by Metallic Cat), Chrome Catillac ($106,790, by Metallic Cat) and Royal Red Brow ($46,134, by High Brow Cat).
Reyny Day Nickle was bred by Michelle Cannon, of Waxahachie, Texas.
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