Winning the Cactus Reining Classic Open Derby and qualifying for The Run For A Million (TRFAM), Duane Latimer and CS Especially Moody (Gunners Special Nite x Judys A Little Moody x Wimpys Little Step) went all out at WestWorld of Scottsdale, Arizona to mark a 225.5 on Saturday, March 23, 2024. Heading into their run, Latimer knew he needed to make the best run possible.
“I wasn’t really thinking a number at that stage, so I just walked to the middle, and I just tried to turn clean. He turned really good both ways, and then, he circled really good the first way and the second way,” Latimer explained. “Those first three maneuvers were in the half-range in my opinion, and after that, everything just started flowing together. His left set of circles was in the one-range, and all three stops were huge. I think they were all in that one-range also, so he was very, very good.”
Bred and raised at the XCS Ranch in Gordonville, Texas, CS Especially Moody is a 5-year-old sorrel stallion fairly new to the show scene. Latimer schooled him in Tulsa prior to heading to Scottsdale, then did the schooling class at the event, and the young horse proved to be good on the long trip and at the big show.
“I did really good on him as a 3-year-old in Tulsa. He was an Open Level 4 finalist at the futurity. Then last year, I did three turns when I showed him once, and the other time I showed him, we just didn’t have a great run. So, we kind of came into this show fairly fresh. He hasn’t been shown a ton,” Latimer said. “That was the first time he’d ever been on a trailer ride that long, but actually hauled so good playing and messing around all the time. He had lots of energy to do the whole weekend, he schooled good the whole time and showed real well with me.”
In 2019, when TRFAM began as an invitational event, Duane Latimer traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada as an invited competitor. Although he didn’t take the win that year, he has been waiting for the right horses to go back to the ‘richest event in the history of reining’.
“The first year, I got a shoe-in, because they didn’t have a qualification system then. When the qualification thing started, I didn’t really think I had good enough horses. This is the first year I thought both my horses were qualified enough to do it, so it was nice that they actually worked out,” Latimer said. “It is really cool to go and win an event. At my age, I know that I am at the end of my career. I’ve been blessed with a lot of wins, but at the end of my career, I enjoy this a lot because you never know when the last one is going to be the last one.”
The Million Dollar Competition at TRFAM consists of 16 riders qualified at one of three events: the 2023 Run For A Million $100,000 Open Shoot Out, the 2023 Equita Lyon MDC Qualifier in France and the Cactus Reining Classic. The other 9 riders qualified through the Cactus Reining Classic include Jordan McBurney, Casey Hinton, Fernando Salgado, Shawn Flarida, Craig Schmersal, Francesco Martinotti, Luca Fappani, Gabriel Borges and Jared LeClair.
During TRFAM held August 12-17, 2024 at South Point Arena and Equestrian Center in Las Vegas, the qualified riders will compete in one go-round, where the champion alone will receive $500,000. TRFAM came about in 2019, the event as well as the Cactus Classic are televised on the show The Last Cowboy.
All Rights Reserved. Copyright , Central Coast Communications, Inc.