Clay Cerny tops Tie-Down Maturity Average on Conrey Kitty, while Cheyanne McCartney won the Breakaway Futurity Average on Platinum Pluss.
ARDMORE, OKLAHOMA – The first day of the Gold Buckle Futurities Spring Event paid out $160,500 to tie-down and breakaway ropers, with top checks going to Clay Cerny on Conrey Kitty and Cheyanne McCartney on Platinum Pluss.
CLAY CERNY & CONREY KITTY
In the Tie-Down Roping Maturity, Cerny, a two-time NFR tie-down roper and cutting horse trainer, scored a 878.40 on four head on Conrey Kitty, a 6-year-old son of Elite Stallion Kit Kat Sugar out of the High Brow Cat mare Reymember That Cat.
Cerny, of Eagle Lake, Texas, won second in the first go for $500, won the main average for $20,000, won the intermediate for $4,000 and won the Gold Buckle Stallion Incentive for another $10,000 (with $5,000 of that going to the owners of Kit Kat Sugar). Conrey Kitty was bred by Lonnie and Barbara Allsup of Clovis, New Mexico and is owned by Pete and Tori Branch of Lingleville, Texas.
CLAY CERNY ACCEPTING AWARDS
This was also the first event to payout the new Gold Buckle Elite Breeder Incentive—an incentive that pays not just to the stallion owners but to the breeders of each horse, giving programs a chance to highlight all their progeny. Chance Thiessen piloted Bet On Yer Brother, raised by the Over Forty Ranch, to the first Elite Breeders’ Incentive title, worth $12,500—with $6,250 going to Thiessen and $6,250 going to the Over Forty Ranch.
McCartney, of Kingston, Oklahoma, rode American Rodeo champ Sarah Angelone’s 4-year-old High Brow CD mare Platinum Pluss out of the Woody Be Tuff mare CR Miss Meow to win the Breakaway Futurity average for $17,000 plus another $1,000 for the Round 3 win. The horse was bred by Robert Collins of Aiken, South Carolina.
“I love these futurities,” McCartney, who won the average at the 2023 National Finals of Breakaway Roping, said. “Mainly because my younger horses, it gives me chance to season them and also win some money on them. I don’t have to go to an open jackpot and compete against girls on their rodeo horses, because then you really have to decide if you’re going to rope for your horse or completely bomb out. At the futurities, we can make good runs on good horses and get paid for it. It doesn’t make sense in my mind to season these good young horses at jackpots. At these deals you can showcase your horse, and its tools without sacrificing anything.”
Canadian standout Marissa Boisjoli won the Gold Buckle Elite Stallion Incentive in the 4-&-Under Breakaway Futurity on CR Tuff Pep, by Gold Buckle Elite Stallion Woody Be Tuff. The horse also won second in the main average for $5,000 with a score of 900.78, getting another $10,000 (split $5,000 to Boisjoli and $5,000 to Woody Be Tuff owners Solo Select and Kaleb Terlip). Boisjoli also won the Intermediate Incentive on the horse for another $2,700 and the first round of the roping for $1,000.
Both the 6-&-Under Tie-Down Maturity and 4-&-Under Breakaway Roping Futurity awarded an added $10,000 bonus to the event’s average winners, sponsored by Gold Buckle Futurities. All open events all weekend will have that $10,000 bonus to average winners, with the heading and heeling futurities’ bonus sponsored by Southern Ranches’ stallion, The Notorious BIG, for the BIG Bonus.
The action continues in Ardmore May 10 with the 4-&-Under Tie-Down Futurity and the 6-&-Under Breakaway Maturity, each with $7,500 added. The team roping kicks off Saturday, May 11 and concludes Sunday, May 12. All action is livestreamed on NextGen, and full results available here.
