If you ask Tarin Rice, he’ll tell you Catolena Cashin In had the “it” factor from the start.
The star power – in the form of strength and intelligence in the show pen – was on full display Saturday, April 17, in the 4-Year-Old Open finals of the Kit Kat Sugar National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Super Stakes.
Rice and the sorrel son of Reyzin The Cash brought the crowd to a crescendo with a 230-point run in the second draw of the finals. Eighteen more horse-and-rider combinations attempted to match it, but the closest they could come was a 224.5 marked by Reserve Champions Just U N Me Baby and Morgan Cromer.
Going into the Super Stakes, Catolena Cashin In showed in his training that he was ready to fire a big effort. That’s not unusual, Rice said.
“He’s been ready since the [2020] Futurity you know,” Rice said of Joel Colgrove’s stallion, who marked the high score of the first go-round of the NCHA Futurity. “The first time we showed him one the first go at the Futurity, marked a (2)24.”
The stallion arrived at Rice’s program early in his 3-year-old year. His owner, Joel Colgrove, also is his breeder.
“I think I got him there either in January or early February and and he’s just been a great horse since first time,” he said. “I went tried him as a 2-year-old in September [2019] and loved him and told Joel that I would like to have him.”
He and Rice made the NCHA Futurity finals and, in his 4-year-old year, has continued to add to his bankroll. Earlier this year, they won the 4-Year-Old Open at The Ike and were Reserve Champions at the Arbuckle Mountain Futurity.
The $59,944 first-place paycheck from the NCHA Super Stakes pushed Catolena Cashin In’s lifetime record to more than $143,784. He is the leading earner for his sire and also for his dam, Dual Catolena (by High Brow Cat).
The win at the Super Stakes completed a Will Rogers trio for Rice, who previously won the 2012 NCHA Futurity Co-Championship with He Bea Cat and the 2014 NCHA Summer Spectacular Championship with Miss Callie Cat.
“This one here completed the deal,” he said. “This is the first time that I’ve ever done this good at the Super Stakes so it was pretty surreal.
“It was awesome.”
