The second weekend of July is always special for trainer Todd Crawford, because it’s the Equi-Stat Elite $3 Million Rider’s birthday. This year, he and SCR Crackalackin gave himself a gift in the form of the first Open title at a new National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) premier event.
It was the Dom Conicelli Eastern Derby, Presented by MARS Equestrian. Held for the first time in 2020 near Memphis, Tennessee, the Eastern Derby took the place of the former East Coast Reined Cow Horse Classic.
Crawford, of Blanchard, Oklahoma, has a long history with the mare he won the NRCHA Eastern Derby win: SCR Crackalackin is a daughter of Smart Crackin Chic, a mare he rode to the 2006 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Championship.
Owned by breeder Singleton Ranches, SCR Crackalackin and Crawford made the finals of the last year’s Snaffle Bit Futurity Open, and were fifth in the futurity class at the 2019 East Coast Reined Cow Horse Classic.
He also rode the mare in last month’s NRCHA Derby in Scottsdale, Arizona, but didn’t make it back for that event’s finals. She redeemed herself in Tennessee, exiting the finals on Saturday, July 18, with a winning composite of 440.5 (146.5 herd/147 rein/147 cow).
“[I} made the finals at the Futurity last year on her and have showed her a couple of times this year and … we had some bad luck in Scottsdale,” he said. “She kind of had to grow up and show, but she was really good here.”.
SCR Crackalackin is one of 16 money-earning performers out of her dam, who has produced winners of more than $661,000. Like SCR Crackalackin, the broodmare’s three leading earners are all sired by Equi-Stat Elite $34 Million Sire Metallic Cat: they are cutters Mistresssis ($223,549), Metallic Mistress ($175,189) and Mister Metallic ($66,379).
The $9,785 first-place check at the NRCHA Eastern Derby pushed SCR Crackalackin’s lifetime earnings to more than $21,000.
