Trevor Brazile is high call at the ARHFA’s World Show for the second straight year on a reining-bred head horse, this time aboard Vintage New York, a 6-year-old by Platinum Vintage out of Lil Sugbaby Gun by Colonels Lil Gun.
Brazile, the 26-time PRCA World Champion and 2024 ARHFA World Champion, won the futurity last October on A Relentless Nite, a son of leading reining sire Gunners Special Nite.
“I’ve been telling everybody he’s my favorite,” Brazile said of the horse they call Vinnie at the Relentless Remuda. “He’s not a big horse, but he handles himself so good. He never seems to be out of place. Everything he does, it’s easy for him to do pretty. He just has good expression. He scores good. He finishes the run good. And handling cattle on him is so fun just because his footwork’s so good.”
Brazile pointed to the setup—where not every steer left sharp—as proof of Vintage New York’s read and rate.
“You don’t have to overthink showing a horse like him,” he said. “You just go rope.”
How Vintage New York Got Here
The horse came through the program of three-time NFR heeler Hunter Koch and his partner JD McGuire at X Performance Horses.
“JD and I bought him from a reiner in Whitesboro named Yonathan Baruch late in his 3-year-old year,” Koch said. “I heeled on him for a couple months, then I left for the summer to go rodeo and JD took him to Bubba Garcia. Bubba rode him a little, we got him back when I got home, and he kind of got behind. He was pretty head-horsey size to be a heel horse.”
From there, X Performance Horses pointed him to the front end.
“JD took him back to Midland, and Cody Wheeler started heading on him,” Koch said. “Wheeler headed on him four or five months that winter. When we got him back, Cody Snow started showing him. He showed him at Ardmore in the spring and did pretty good. I think he placed at maybe at the Gold Buckle show in Ardmore.”
Not long after, Brazile and Baker’s long-favorite heel horse RO Roll Tide Dually, aged out of the futurities.
“When Bama came up for sale, X and Trevor did a little trading,” Koch said.
The Campaign and What’s Next
Vintage New York got hurt on the help side at the Red Bud earlier this year, so he’s not seen any action yet under the Relentless Remuda’s guidance. But in Amarillo, the horse made his mark—winning the first round, winning fourth in the second round and rolling into the short round with a 697.71 on three. Kaleb Driggers’ Blowin In Time is second with a 691.88 on three. The ARHFA short rounds are Saturday, Nov. 1, so Vinnie has time to relax before running the pressure hits again.
As for the future, Brazile left the door open to either a sale or staying the course.
“I really may just keep him,” Brazile said. “He’s that good. He would be such a sweet calf horse, breakaway horse and head horse combo. There’s nothing like him.”
