Congratulations to Nanton, Alta.,-based trainer Dustin Gonnet on winning big at the Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth, Tex. He rode the mare, This Cats Got Style, owned by Ronald Patton, to a score of 229 in the Open Slot Cutting Finals at the NCHA Futurity & World Championship Show, winning $75,000.
It’s the second ever Slot Cutting event held in the Fort Worth Arena, hosted by Western Bloodstock and the NCHA, where in this particular event, horses of any age can compete for a total prize purse of $330,000 in the Open final alone. (A slot cutting is essentially a calcutta. 100 slots are available for sale, if all the slots are filled the top 20 make the final. Slots costs $5,000 for the Open, $3,500 for the Non-Pro and $2,500 for the unlimited amateur.)
This Cats Got Style is a High Brow Cat out of Moms Stylish Pepto and owned by Ronald Patton. The mare beat out a host of legendary horses including Don’t Look Twice in the go round to the 10-year-old stallion, Third Cutting and 2014 Horse of the Year Junie Wood in the final.
This Cats Got Style and Gonnet won the 2012 Canadian Supreme Futurity and the 2014 Canadian Supreme 5/6 Classic, and took reserve in the 2014 Calgary NCHA World Series. This past year they won the $15,000 Novice championship at the NCHA Western Nationals.
Including her Winter Showdown winnings, This Cats Got Style has NCHA lifetime earnings of $175,868.
This win brings the 33-year-old Saskatchewan-raised Gonnet to the prestigious million-dollar mark in winnings.