October 5, 2006 — Todd Crawford had won just about every title imaginable in the reined cow horse and reining industries–except for the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Snaffle Bit Futurity Championship. October 1, Crawford finally added that elusive championship to his already impressive resume as he won the prestigious event and $100,000 riding Smart Crackin Chic. The Snaffle Bit began September 17 and ran through October 1, paying out more than $1.2 million at the Reno Livestock Events Center in Reno, Nevada.
With the win, Crawford joined Ted Robinson, Bob Avila and Jon Roeser as an NRCHA Million Dollar Rider.
Smart Crackin Chic, a Smart Chic Olena daughter out of Kwackin, had already won the NRCHA 2-Year-Old Futurity Sale Incentive and $24,000 during the preliminaries. In the finals, she started huge in the herd work with a 222, and then came back in the rein work to mark a 213.5. Crawford and the mare drew up first in the second set of cow work and knew that Jon Roeser was already leading the pack.
“In my fence work, my mare was real good,” Crawford said. “I didn’t draw the best cow. I went across the pen a couple of times with him. He didn’t have much feel and so I thought it was time to go. Because I needed to mark a score, at that point it was all or nothing.”
All or nothing left him with a 220 down the fence to tie Roeser’s lead, and the tie-breaker system gives the tie to the high fence score, so he became the champion after sitting through the remaining 16 runs.
“The best thing about what that mare did was she went and circled that cow and finished up strong,” he noted. “I think that topped off the run.”
Singleton Ranches, of Lamy, N.M., bought Smart Crackin Chic from Garth Brown at the Snaffle Bit Futurity Sale last year. Todd hauled her back to Oklahoma after the Futurity and really liked her from the beginning.
“The mare has always had a lot of cow and was real electric,” Crawford said. “She was real bright with her ears, real bright on a cow, real quick on a cow. That’s one of the first things you like to have. She had a good feel about her all the way through.”
Roeser, from Lemoore, Calif., finished reserve with Meradas Cookin Now, by Meradas Money Talks and out of Cookies Cookin, owned by Bourdet Ranches of Chiliquin, Ore.
“It’s a hard way to lose–by tying,” Roeser said. “In the old days they would work it off, and I was willing! I felt really good after the reining being the leader but I knew this contest would come down to the fence work. I knew I had an early draw and I was fortunate to have a decent cow.
Roeser marked a 218.5 in the herd work, a 217.5 in the rein work and a 219.5 down the fence to earn $82,000.
For complete results and coverage from the 2006 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity, visit www.nrcha.com.
