Editor’s note: This story was reported in late August for the October 2026 issue of The Team Roping Journal. Since then, the Riata Championships and Solo Select Rope Horse Futurity have concluded. Earnings and rankings below reflect QData totals as of late August.
These 10 horses have won more than $1.4 million in their careers, and with the close of 2026, their time in the aged-event spotlight comes to an end. When this story went to press in late August, the Riata Championships, the Solo Select Futurity, the ARHFA World Championship, the AQHA World Show and the Gold Buckle World Finals were still to run. These were the top 10 “graduating” rope horses at the time—as well as the what’s-next for each of them.
A few things set this class apart from the one before it.
Where the Class of 2025 put four stallions in its top 10, three of them in the top five, this group is one stallion, two mares and seven geldings. The what’s-next here is not written in stud fees and mare books. It is a ProRodeo string, a December sale ring in Las Vegas, a phased handoff to a recreational roper in Missouri and a good deal of World Series jackpot money.
And the money has moved. These are QData lifetime earnings, which count jackpot, sidepot and incentive dollars alongside age-event money—a distinction that matters more for this class than it did for the last one. Two of these horses built nearly everything they have in handicapped jackpots. The ninth-highest earner among them has never entered a futurity in his life.
The class also lost its best horse before she could graduate. Relentless PYC died Nov. 4, 2025, at 5, and nearly a year later she still leads it.
Earnings are current as of late August.
Meet the Class of 2026
Career Highlights
The mare Miles Baker called “Nala” died Nov. 4, 2025, in an accident during a practice run at home. She showed as a 4-year-old and for part of her 5-year-old year, and it was enough to leave her on top of a class she never got to finish.
“Every year the futurities have—the horsepower’s gotten better,” Baker said. “And for her to—this would have been the last year of her futurities, and she showed as a 4-year-old and just part of her 5-year-old year, and to still be the one on top just shows how dominant she was at what she did.”
Baker had picked her out of a pen of coming 2-year-old fillies at the Flag Ranch on instinct.
“I was looking at some coming 2-year-old fillies. Nala had a big hip and a soft eye—there was just something about her,” he said. “I can’t explain why I picked her over the others that day, but I told Trevor, ‘There’s something special about that mare.’”
She won $206,574 in roughly 19 months, becoming the highest-earning futurity mare in rope horse history. Her biggest check came at the 2024 Old West in Heber City, where she won the heading pre-futurity for $55,000. Her biggest week came six months later at the Gold Buckle World Finals, where she was second in the average and won both the stallion and breeder incentives for $39,400. In between she won the 4-&-Under heading at Royal Crown Rock Springs for $13,310 and placed third and sixth in two divisions at the ARHFA World Championship for $10,000 apiece. In February 2025 she won the Royal Crown Buckeye 6-&-Under Heading for $21,095, and that April she won the ARHFA Cowtown Classic for $10,035.
She earned 11 AQHA performance points in the heading and an Open Performance ROM. What she did not do was win one enormous check and coast.
“There’s a lot of horses that win once or twice here or there, but there’s very few horses that can add that much money up. Especially not in that short of a time,” Baker said. “We didn’t have the $100,000s to win and stuff. She won one big check in all of that money, and then the rest of it was made up $10,000s at a time. That mare scored every single time and could fly and just look pretty doing it.”
Future Plans
What is left of her is finite, and Baker knows the number.
“Her whole legacy rests on the back of a Cyber Monday and two Pride And Joyys,” he said. “And you will have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands.”
What Baker took from the mare is turning up elsewhere in his barn. Fendiii, the mare he says is following in Nala’s footsteps, is out of a 7/8 sibling to First Prize Diver—PYC blood on the maternal side where Nala carried it on the paternal. The 4-year-old he expects to be his best next season is out of a PYC mare, too.
“I think there’s something to that,” Baker said.
“She scores and can fly and wants to rate and looks pretty,” he said of that filly. “And that’s how I would have to sum up Nala.”
NO. 2 · GELDING
RR Gunners Affair
$181,582
LIFETIME EARNINGS
Gunners Special Nite x Cowgirl Affair x Major Vaquero
Career Highlights
He was a double world champion at 4, quiet at 5, and back on top at 6.
At the 2024 ARHFA World Championship in Fort Worth, RR Gunners Affair and Trevor Brazile won the Open Heading on a 941.40 for $25,000 and the 3-&-4-year-old Heading for another $20,000, with Wesley Thorp heeling. He won the third round, placed third in the first and came back to the short round leading by 4.13 points. With round money and the APHA incentive, the week was worth $51,600. He had already been third at the Old West pre-futurity for $17,600 and second at Royal Crown Rock Springs for $11,025.
“This thing has always been good to us, but it is, it’s nice to finally win it,” Brazile said that night.
Then 2025 went flat. He earned $25,157 and won nothing, no-scoring the Old West heading finals in June and missing the 20-horse finals at the ARHFA World Championship in Amarillo, where Brazile won the title on another horse.
He answered it in 2026. He was second in the Old West Gamble at Guthrie for $20,748, won the Gold Buckle Spring Maturity Heading and its stallion incentive for $26,200, and won Royal Crown OKC’s 6-&-Under Heading for $14,870. His $68,288 led all heading horses through mid-June.
“That’s just a good horse,” Brazile said. “You can count on him.”
The better story may be his dam. Cowgirl Affair has now produced an ARHFA world champion heel horse for the Remuda in WND Affair, by Whizkey N Diamonds, and a double world champion head horse in RR Gunners Affair—two different reining-bred stallions, both ends of the arena.
“That dam is old-school reining-bred,” Brazile said. “She’s worked for our industry.”
Future Plans
Wittwer bought the horse to fit into his son Statton’s string, so he’ll still appear at the shows and in jackpot competition.
NO. 3 · GELDING
Rockk Star
$159,343
LIFETIME EARNINGS
Peptoboonsmal x Aristocratic Star x High Brow Cat
Career Highlights
Hunter Koch bought him out of the Solo Select Sale as a 2-year-old, left him with Solo’s trainer for 90 days and got him back as a 3-year-old.
“We got him back when he was 3, and I went to heeling on him,” Koch said.
He showed that December at the Gold Buckle in both the 4-&-Under and the 6-&-Under, winning the short round. He was third in the heeling at the 2024 Oil Can Classic. Then came the May 2024 Gold Buckle Spring in Ardmore, where he won four rounds across two divisions and took the Futurity Heeling average on a 906.58—more than 11 points clear of the field—for $20,500.
He made the heeling short go at the 2024 ARHFA World Championship. Paul Eaves showed him through 2025, winning second in the Gold Buckle’s heeling maturity after placing at the Bob Feist Invitational earlier that year.
The horse won a round at San Antonio in 2026 with Koch, and he’s picked up checks with co-owner J.D. McGuire in the #11.5 ropings this year, too, earning him bonus checks in the National Rope Horse Rewards Program as well. Kade Smith caught a ride on him in the #12.5 at the Spicer Gripp, splitting another $11,550.
Future Plans
Koch called this two years ago.
“I could dang sure jackpot on him and do good already. We don’t want to blow him up or anything, but he’ll have a future past the show world,” he said in 2024. “He’s real mature, real physical, with plenty of speed.”
The gelding is now in Koch’s ProRodeo rotation and will still show with Koch at the futurities this year. But X Performance Horses is a business, so the horse will be offered to the public to showcase the very best they train.
NO. 4 · MARE
Pale Liberty
$135,995
LIFETIME EARNINGS
Pale Face Dunnit x Lil Miss Pepto x Peptoboonsmal
Career Highlights
She was supposed to be a reiner.
“This one just wasn’t quite making a reiner,” said Andy Holcomb, who has ridden her for her entire career. “She wanted to make it in a heel horse for her husband. She’s just real, kind of pretty classy mare and took to it pretty fast.”
There is not a rope horse sire in her first three generations. Pale Face Dunnit is an NRHA 5 Million Dollar Sire by Colonels Smoking Gun out of a Hollywood Dun It mare, standing in Scottsdale—the same town the mare was bred in—and his stallion page does not claim a single roping offspring. The bottom of her pedigree is Peptoboonsmal.
She won $50,000 in the heeling pre-futurity at the 2024 Old West in Heber City on a 695.75, and was second at the Sun Circuit pre-futurity for $7,578. She placed at the ARHFA World Championship that fall. In 2025 she was fourth in the Royal Crown Buckeye 6-&-Under Heeling for $10,215.
Her 6-year-old year has been her best. She won both the 6-&-Under Heeling and its Semi-Pro sidepot at Royal Crown Buckeye in February for $21,027, won the Intermediate Heeling at the Old West Gamble at Guthrie in April for $17,183 while placing ninth in the Open there, was third in the Intermediate at Old West in Heber City for $10,375, and won the Royal Crown OKC 6-&-Under sidepot for $4,500. She has earned $65,322 this year.
Holcomb, a Cactus Ropes representative out of Aromas, California, credits a single change from Kollin VonAhn and Shay Carroll.
“I’ve been working on something Kollin and Shay told me—not to turn my rope over to the left side of my horse,” he said.
Future Plans
She has a date with Travelin Jonez and Stevie Rey Von when she ages out of the futurities. Walters is looking forward to getting her home to Arizona to show in the reining and ranch riding, too. Her husband ropes as well, so she could appear in some shows in the non-pro.
NO. 5 · GELDING
One Nite Special
$131,445
LIFETIME EARNINGS
Gunners Special Nite x Thelmas Whiz x Topsail Whiz
Career Highlights
He is half of the most historic night in ARHFA history, and nobody has seen him in more than a year.
In October 2024 in Fort Worth, One Nite Special and Joseph Harrison won the Open Heeling World Championship on a 945.43 for $30,000 and the 3-&-4-year-old Heeling for another $20,000—the same night RR Gunners Affair won both heading titles. Same sire, both ends of the arena, the first time it had been done. With round money the week was worth $55,500. A month later he won the Gold Buckle World Finals Heeling Futurity and its stallion incentive in Abilene for $31,500. He finished 2024 as the No. 4 heeling horse in the country.
Harrison had never ridden a Gunners Special Nite, and said so in an interview. Chris Young heard it and sent him one.
“I had said something in an interview that maybe I hadn’t rode a Gunners Special Nite, and I wanted to,” Harrison said. “He sent him to me, and here we are.”
“He’s the first one I’ve ever rode. Miles told me they could be a hair immature minded,” Harrison said. “I noticed right away with mine, that he plays all the time. He’s playing when you catch him, he’s playing while you saddle him, he’s always playing. He’s playing when you school on him and ride him at the house. But when you get to town, he’s not playing.”
He ran three ARHFA events in the spring of 2025—sixth at the Sun Circuit, fourth at the Oil Can Classic, second at Redbud—for $27,594. After that, the horse was out for injury but will be back in action this fall.
Future Plans
The Youngs plan to use the horse at the jackpots and rodeos, with National Finals Breakaway Roper Macy Young planning to work him into her string behind a calf, too.
NO. 6 · GELDING
AR Metallic Man
$128,416
LIFETIME EARNINGS
Metallic Cat x Stylish Lizzie x Lizzys Gotta Player
Career Highlights
He nearly was not a rope horse at all, and this year he led all of them.
He sold at the Triangle Sale to Cooper Smith and was headed to Kaleb Driggers to be a head horse. Kollin VonAhn hauled him down.
“When I got there he said, ‘Man, I don’t think he’s big enough,’” VonAhn said. “So I took him back home with me and rode him. He was too good of a horse not to keep.”
He bought him reluctantly. “I hated to buy him because he was already a 5-year-old. He wasn’t ready, but he was too good of a horse not to keep,” VonAhn said. “I turned him out with the 4-year-olds that were more ready, and I started on him then.”
The 2025 season was thin: third in the Riata Buckle Pro Heeling Futurity for $29,566 with incentives, fifth at Royal Crown Rapid City, and a first-round win at the Old West followed by a no-score in the finals. He finished the year at $37,174.
“He really didn’t have a lot of luck last year. I knew he was a good horse, but it was just like, you unlucky sucker,” VonAhn said. “And then this year it’s been the complete opposite. He’s been doing good, and the dominoes have fallen my direction.”
In 2026 he won the ARHFA Arizona Sun Circuit outright for $30,160, won the Gold Buckle Spring Maturity Heeling and its stallion incentive for $31,195, won the Old West Rodeo For A Cause heeling for $10,000, was seventh in the Guthrie Open for $7,495 and sixth at Redbud for $5,178. He has won $91,242 this year, more than any other rope horse at either end of the arena.
He is a full brother to Metallizzie, the 2021 NCHA World Champion $25,000 Novice Champion. Same cross, opposite arena.
“As Metallic Cat’s legacy continues to unfold as a sire in show pens everywhere, one thing we never saw coming was his dominance in the rope horse pen,” said Bobby Patton, who owns the stallion.
Future Plans
Chris Pomeroy bought him this year, and he’ll take over the reins in January 2027. VonAhn is able to ride him as needed, but he’ll finish out his futurity career and head to Missouri for Pomeroy. With millions and millions available in the Ariat World Series of Team Roping, the horse’s earnings aren’t done climbing.
NO. 7 · GELDING
Almost Lostmy Ticket
$128,295
LIFETIME EARNINGS
Roo Star x Ticket Out Of Here x With All Probability
Career Highlights
On the morning of June 20, 2025, the gelding Tate Kirchenschlager calls “Jetson” had earned $22,295. That afternoon he won the Old West Futurity heading finals on a 232.84 short round and a 926.63 average, with Shay Carroll heeling, for $100,000.
“I don’t even have the words to describe it. I’ve never won that much in one day,” Kirchenschlager said. “It really hasn’t sunk in. It’s life-changing money, I mean, for me and my wife.”
His first instinct at the microphone was to credit the man who sold him the horse. Brad Lund had about 30 days of roping on the gelding when the Kirchenschlagers bought him.
“Honestly, Brad Lund sold him to us, so if it wasn’t for Brad,” he said. “He helped me train him, too.”
The rest of the record is four lines: a win in the Cowtown Classic heading pre-futurity in his second career start in 2024, fourth at the Old West pre-futurity that summer, fourth at the Gold Buckle World Finals that fall, and fourth in the Old West Rodeo For A Cause heading in 2026 for $6,000. He is the only horse in the top 10 who has never earned a dollar of incentive or sidepot money—but he’s stayed consistent throughout his career as one of the industry’s best young horses.
Future Plans
Kyle Lincoln bought Almost Lostmy Ticket from the Kirchenschlagers, so when the horse is done showing, he’ll enter Lincoln’s string with a future for even bigger money in the Ariat World Series of Team Roping.
NO. 8 · STALLION
I Got Dibs Doc
$125,653
LIFETIME EARNINGS
Aint Seen Nothin Yet x Ms Docs Poco Leo Bar x Lucky Poco Doc Bar
Career Highlights
He is the only stallion in this class, the least conventionally bred horse in it, and he has switched ends of the arena in his last eligible year.
His sire, Aint Seen Nothin Yet, is a barrel racing stallion by Frenchmans Guy out of a Dash Ta Fame mare, enrolled in Pink Buckle and Ruby Buckle, with more than $4.7 million in progeny earnings almost entirely in barrels. He never competed; a freak accident shattered his hock before he showed. The bottom of the pedigree is Doc Bar and Poco Bueno foundation blood.
Logan Allen, a 38-year-old former saddle bronc rider with 14 Great Lakes Circuit Finals qualifications, got the ride only after doing well on the stud’s younger full brother. In August 2025 they won the Amateur Heading at Royal Crown Rapid City for $8,698. Allen then took him rodeoing over Labor Day.
“I was like, I think this yellow would be able to do it,” Allen said. “So I rode him at them rodeos because he’s so good.”
At the Riata Championships that September, Allen and a then-19-year-old Ketch Kelton won the #14.5 heading on 29.33 seconds on four head. The horse’s share, with the stallion incentive, nominator incentive and 6-&-Under bonuses, was $103,434. They ran the Riata Pro Futurity the same day and did not place.
He has 36.5 AQHA performance points in the heading and heeling and an Open Performance ROM. In 2026 he has been heeling: he won the Royal Crown OKC #15 Heeling jackpot for $7,660 and was fourth in the Amateur Heeling there.
Future Plans
Allen has ridden the horse at circuit and amateur rodeos, and he’s an enrolled stallion in the Royal Crown in both the barrel racing and roping. He’s got frozen semen stored, so he’ll have babies on the way in 2027. He’ll compete on both ends at the ARHFA World Championships in Amarillo, and he’ll show at the AQHA World Show on both ends, too.
NO. 9 · GELDING
Metallic To A Te
$122,910
LIFETIME EARNINGS
Metallic Gray x Duchess Goldseeker x Herman Goldseeker
Career Highlights
He is ninth on this list and he has never entered a futurity.
Every dollar Metallic To A Te has won has come in a handicapped jackpot or an incentive—$36,200 of it in incentive and sidepot money alone, the highest share in the class. He is owned and ridden by JR Caldwell, a Valley View, Texas, racehorse trainer who came back to roping two and a half years ago after a 15-year layoff.
“I roped all the time about 15 years ago, and I quit,” Caldwell said. “And two and a half years ago I came back, and at 50 years old I’ve had to work my ass off. You’re slower, and you got to work.”
He bought the gelding from Mollie Devereaux and sent him out for reining training.
“I sent him to Jarvis Anderson for 90 days, and it made a world of difference,” Caldwell said. “He’s a lot better horse.”
In 2025 the pair won the Riata #8.5 for $72,850, plus $9,100 apiece in stallion and nominator incentives, and were second in the heeling sidepot for another $18,000. In 2026 they won the World Series Super Qualifier #8.5 Heeling in Fort Worth for $8,770 and were second in the Ardmore #7.5 in May.
“I train race horses for a living,” Caldwell said. “I like to win. I’d go rope and it was like people would want to do it for fun. I don’t want to do it for fun. I want to win and be a competitor.”
Devereaux, who sold him the horse, put it more simply: “I thought, well, we need to cut down on the feed bill. And JR bought him, and I guess the rest is history there.”
Future Plans
Caldwell has been roping on the horse all year in 2026 in the National Rope Horse Rewards Program, and he got the month of August off to get ready for the Riata.
“Everything’s for sale,” Caldwell said. “But it will take someone who really wants a winner to buy him.”
NO. 10 · GELDING
BR Call A Uber
$118,999
LIFETIME EARNINGS
BR Golden Leader x Lady Bugs Specialty x Frenchmans Specialty
Career Highlights
His sire’s barn name is Taxi. That is where the name comes from, and it runs through the whole barn—BR Quick Trip, Miss Taxi Fare, Annies Taxi.
BR Golden Leader is by Confederate Leader. His get have gone four directions: Annies Taxi was Trevor Brazile’s mount at the 2024 Bob Feist Invitational, BR Golden Kat Olena is a Limited Heading Futurity World Champion and Saylors Packing Fame made the top five at the NBHA Finals. His dam is by Frenchmans Specialty, which puts run on both sides.
Kaleb Driggers rode him through an ownership change. Driggers’ own K4 Partnership owned the gelding when he was fourth in the 2024 Old West heading futurity for $19,880; Justin Hughes owned him by the spring of 2025, and Driggers kept the ride.
2025 was his year. He was Reserve Champion at the Old West in Heber City on a 919.50 for $33,440, third in the ARHFA World Championship heading finals in Amarillo for $13,308, second at Royal Crown Guthrie for $12,174, and won the Gold Buckle Spring Maturity stallion incentive for $12,130 while placing second in the average. He earned $80,862.
Future Plans
The horse will go back to Florida after this year with the Hughes family.
“It is such a fulfilling moment for our circle,” Driggers said. “The Hughes family has become like family to us. And for Uber to be bred, raised and trained by Cole and Whitney Davison, then shown by me and then to move on into everyday jackpotting—it’s special because that’s the reason we do what we do. The money is great and the wins are special, but the relationships are what it’s all about, and our values align on that.”
—TRJ—