The deadline for an initial low rate is approaching to nominate weanlings for the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Nomination Program.
Foals enrolled in the Nomination Program are eligible to compete in the NRHA Futurity and Derby in the United States and/or in Europe.
Officials say the NRHA Nomination Program was created to grow its North American and European futurities and derbies through enhanced payouts. It has done that by allocating 60 percent of all the fees to the futurities and 40 percent to the derbies after a 10 percent retainage. Simply put, the enrollment of foals creates additional added money to the purses at the futurities and derbies which saw a 42% increase in the North American NRHA Futurity Open in the very first year.
Officials say the deadline is Jan. 10. Fees double until Jan. 31, and then the foal is considered a yearling and the nominator must pay the yearling fees.
NRHA Nomination Program
When a horse competes and wins money at one of the futurities or derbies, the nominator receives five of the earnings. It does not matter if the nominator still owns the horse or not. For example, at the 2020 NRHA Futurity, although Arcese Quarter Horses was both the owner and nominator of open futurity champion All Bettss Are Off, had the horse changed hands, Arcese Quarter Horses would have still received $12,500 of the winner’s $250,000 purse.
Any horse can be nominated, and the original nominator can never be changed.
“We are so fortunate to have ReinerSuite available to us now because it really is the fastest and most economical way to nominate a horse,” said NRHA Member and Show Services/Nomination Representative Emily Rush. “The $10 handling fee is waived when you do it online, and you receive an instant digital confirmation.” When members log in to ReinerSuite, they can get guidance on how to complete nominations in the Resources Library.”
Although the nomination programs for the North American and the European regions are separate, there is an “option” fee available so that horses can become eligible to enter both the North American and European programs. Officials say 100 percent of the option fees are allocated to their respective nomination program. Nominating foals makes them eligible to compete in the NRHA Futurity and/or Derby of their respective regions when they come of age.
More information, including nomination forms, can be found at nrha.com/nomination.
