It takes a good horse to win the 4-Year-Old Stakes Level 4 Open at the High Roller Reining Classic, but when that same 4-year-old also wins the Derby Level 4 Open against other older horses, it’s clearly a talented animal.
Such is the case for Vintage Chex, who was piloted by Andrea Fappani to a 226.5 during the event, held Sept. 6-14 at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas. The duo won the Derby Level 4 Open and Stakes Level 4 Open, and their accumulated earnings of $30,220 elevated Fappani to National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Nine Million Dollar Rider status.
“The horse has been in training with me from the beginning, and he’s the horse that pushed me over $9 million this weekend,” Fappani said. “The owner, Bill Coburn, has had his horses in training with me from pretty much when I first went out on my own. He’s one of the first ones that supported my program and has always been a believer. I’m very proud of winning an event and a milestone in my career with him.”
Vintage Chex (A Sparkling Vintage x Chex Out The Cowgirl x Lean With Me) came from Coburn’s breeding program and was started by Fappani’s son, Luca, before moving into Fappani’s string of horses.
“Luca told me, ‘This is not an easy horse. I don’t think I’m capable of training a horse of this caliber yet,’” Fappani said. “He’s been a challenging horse mentally from the beginning in the fact that he’s very sensitive, and you can lose his attention. He wasn’t very mature early on as a young horse, but he has an amazing talent, and the biggest thing is his stops.”
Fappani knew he was going to have to give the stallion some time to mature, rather than pushing him, even into his 4-year-old year. Now that the horse is coming into his own, that decision is paying off in spades.
“Bill has been very patient,” Fappani said. “I told him, ‘I think this horse has what it takes to win something big, but you have to give me and him time because I don’t think I can force it. It needs to come naturally.’ Here in Vegas, I think everything kind of came together.”
Fappani has long been a proponent of 4-year-old classes, as they take the pressure off horses like Vintage Chex that need a little more time to mature. With so many high-dollar 4-year-old events on the calendar now, though, he cautioned that it could be too much for some horses.
“The whole point of having the 4-year-old events separated from the 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds was to not put as much pressure on these 4-year-olds and let them have a year to where they can develop and then play with the older horses,” he said. “I told my owners this year that just because there’s a lot of money in the 4-year-old doesn’t mean we have to run them everywhere. That’s kind of what happened with this horse; I think he benefitted from that in the fact that I didn’t have to run him super hard. Everywhere I went I was able to pick and choose, and that’s a great thing about where our industry is going in the future.”
Taking Reserve in the High Roller Reining Classic Derby and Stakes Level 4 Open with a 226 were Trythatnasmalltown (Topsail Whiz x Dun It For Chex x Hollywood Dun It) and Craig Schmersal. The duo collected a total of $19,410 for owner Blair Moffett.
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