It’s not that Fancy Deville has never walked into a finals set, she’s placed as high as third at a few shows. It’s just that the cards never quite fell her way, until September 25 at the Pacific Coast Cutting Association (PCCHA) Futurity.
“She was really good the whole show,” EquiStat Elite $10 Million Rider Austin Shepard said of the mare. “She’s made third at the last two shows I’ve shown her at.”
The 6-year-old bay mare by Once In A Blue Boon and out of Louella Deville (High Brow Cat) already has earnings of $137,988 according to EquiStat. With her 222 at the PCCHA Futurity, she took home $15,000 and unofficially made her sire an EquiStat Elite $10 Million Sire.
Although she’d made the finals at many shows from the Cotton Stakes to the Cattlemen’s, and the Augusta Futurity, she hadn’t yet bested a class. The win was bitter sweet for Shepard and the mare as it came towards the end of her 6-year-old year, when cutting horses typically retire.
“You know, we just appreciate the Pacific Coast having a really good cutting. The people there at South Point that’s a it’s a beautiful facility and it was a lot of fun to go there,” Shepard said. “That’s such a state of the art facility and they do everything they can to have the very best horse show they can have. It was just it was just a long way for me, but we never regret going to Vegas.”
Shepard doesn’t always haul his horses all the way to Nevada, but it was his second trip West in 2023. Just a month ago he made the haul with Wood She B Magic (Woody Be Tuff x Metallic Magic x Metallic Cat) for The Run For A Million’s inaugural $200,000 cutting challenge.
Quarter Horse News
by Amy Olson
View article on QHN Online