Offspring of stallion Gunners Special Nite carried Trevor Brazile to his long-awaited first ARHFA World Championship and Joseph Harrison to his fourth, marking the first time in ARHFA history that two colts from the same sire swept the titles.
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Both horses also won the 4-&-Under World Championship earlier in the day, another first at the $200,000-added event in Fort Worth’s John Justin Arena.
“We’re super excited, and we’ve been a fan for a long time of the rope horse business,” said Tom McCutcheon, who stands Gunners Special Nite and who won $235,000 on him in his reining career. “It’s really exciting for me to see it and be successful. His colts are so good minded, it’s not a surprise to me. We’ve been fortunate to get some nice colts in the right hands. We’ve never pushed him toward the roping because he’s one of reining’s top sires, but I guess that might change.”
RR Gunners Affair & Trevor Brazile
In the eight year history of the ARHFA World Championships, Brazile has been high call in exactly half of the Open heading short rounds. But the King of the Cowboys finally walked out of the arena with the title Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, on RR Gunners Affair, a 4-year-old, owned by Jared Wittwer, in just his third trip to town, and $51,000 for his efforts. (That’s $6,000 in go-round winnings, plus $20,000 for the 4-&-Under title and $25,000 for the Open title. Chrome Cash and Royal Crown Stallion Incentive earnings aren’t posted yet.)
“This thing has always been good to us, but it is, it’s nice to finally win it,” Brazile said. “I don’t know that you ever—even once you win it—you don’t want to win it any less because this is a great win. They’ve got a great crowd, and it’s just a culmination of a big year for these horses, and it’s a new group annually, and so they go against their peers and it’s a lot of fun…We really take pride in this and when we do come to town, we want the horses to look and ourselves to look like the work we’ve been putting in.”
RR Gunners Affair is a maternal sibling to WND Affair, the horse Brazile and Baker owned who won the ARHFA World Championship on the heel side with Harrison in 2021.
“That dam is old-school reining-bred,” Brazile said. “She’s worked for our industry. They’ve all had plenty of gas, been stone-cold soldiers in the box and been big with good structure.”
Because he made the short rounds in both the 4-year-old and Open divisions, RR Gunners Affair had to make two short-round runs under the bright lights with the big crowd and loud music. But he wasn’t phased, marking a 236.71 and 233.56 in both short rounds and finishing with a 944.55 in the 4-&-Under and a 941.40 for the Open win. In the Open, Brazile bested himself on RR Buckles Clubhouse (by Show Me The Buckles out of Hail Olena) at second place, for $20,000 with a score of 938.8.
“We had a great day in the prelims of the heading. We had a terrible day in the prelims of the healing, so it was definitely a roller coaster as far as that goes, because we went from one day where we were, I felt like the horses were great. Me and Miles had good days, and then to the next day, 24 hours later, we couldn’t do much right. So it’s just part of it, and I love it for the horses when we win. I hate it for the horses and the owners when we don’t, but it’s not from lack of effort.”
The irony of two Gunners Special Nite siblings getting the titles isn’t lost on Brazile.
“You would’ve probably lost a lot of money in a bet on that,” Brazile said. “In the heeling, I see it a lot, but that mare they crossed him on was kind of old-school reining. I think she goes back to a Major Vaquero, and they said it was just a bigger, grittier line. Whatever it was, they tapped into something that dang sure had enough zing in the run, and the size and grit that it is no surprise to see him in the heeling win. But that’s the only Gunners Special Nite that I’ve ever headed on.”
Brazile had the help of two-time and reigning World Champion Wesley Thorp on the heel side.
“Wesley was perfect for me, and I was less than perfect on the goes I gave him a lot of times too,” Brazile admitted. “I mean, the steers were not ideal to heel sometimes, and you would’ve never known it with him. I mean, he literally was perfect. He got two feet every time I turned him and didn’t take long to do it.”
One Nite Special & Joseph Harrison
Joseph Harrison brought his string of seasoned futurity horses to town for the ARHFA World Championship, but his youngest—the 4-year-old One Nite Special—came out on top when the dust settled Friday night.
“We say this about all the ones that we do good on, but he really is pretty special for a 4-year-old man,” Harrison said. “To be honest, he’s still a hair immature. I think some of those horses as 4-year-olds, especially those Gunners Special Nites, have a little bit of a reputation for being just a hair immature when they’re young, but they’re extremely talented. They’re pretty horses, and they’re fun horses. That little horse there, he is just fun.”
One Nite Special placed in the first round for $1,500, and then won the third round for another $4,000 to come back high call in both the 4-&-Under and Open short rounds. For the 4-&-Under, Harrison and One Nite Special won $20,000, and for the Open, they picked up $30,000. When Chrome Cash and Royal Crown Incentive money is added into the mix, the horse’s earnings for the two days in Fort Worth will top $60,000.
This is Harrison’s fourth Open title at the ARHFA, but his first since 2021.
“He’s honestly a little cowy,” Harrison said. “I mean, just a little bit. Not bad cowy, but pretty kind of good cow. He really wants to hook you into the cow in a good place and stuff like that. So I mean, for a 4-year-old I can kind of put my hand down on him more so than I can some of the other 4-year-olds.”
