Sniperr & Sean Flynn • Photo EM Equine Photography

Sniperr and Sean Flynn Take Aim at Abilene Spectacular 4-Year-Old Open Title

The Abilene Spectacular continued Saturday, Jan. 7, with the 4-Year-Old Open finals. Eighteen horses walked to the herd, and it was draw eight, Sniperr and Sean Flynn, whose score of 227 held the lead to win the class.

Flynn was relieved to get the stallion shown after some bad luck in the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity Open semifinals.

“He is a horse that I felt like I genuinely had a shot at winning the Futurity on, or being right in the mix of it, and I didn’t get there. It was a bit of a kick in the guts,” Flynn said. “This time, it was just a matter of getting him shown good and then hopefully trying to see how it went in the finals and show him to his potential.”

The pair’s score was a big jump from their first rounds, as they marked a 218.5 in the first go, followed by a 216 in the second, making it into the finals with a 434.5 composite.

“He was good through the rounds; I just didn’t get him shown real clean or anything like I had hoped to,” Flynn said. “We actually were right on the bubble making the finals, and I had to sweat it a little bit, but it all worked out. Hopefully we can gain a little momentum and keep going forward from here.”

Sniperr (High Brow Cat x Gini One Time x One Time Pepto), who was bred by Austin and Stacy Shepard, is owned by Flynn and his wife, Ashley. He and Flynn collected $30,000 for the win.

Draw No. 1, Metallic Dawg and Adan Banuelos, set the bar high early with a 223. They settled for the Reserve Championship, which came with a $17,000 check for owner Rocking P Ranch LLC. Metallic Dawg, a red road stallion (Metallic Cat x My Lizzy Babe x Lizzys Gotta Player), was bred by Coyote Rock Ranch.