We can’t go any longer without touting a certain little sorrel game-changer you’re likely to watch on TV this month. Not only did 18-year-old Smart Little Cab, “Casino,” help Hunter Koch earn $29,565 at rodeos in the last two weeks of June to kick off his Fourth run, but consider this: On just the 12 steers he set down at the 2023 NFR and 2024 American, he raked in $262,542.
Koch, 27, had to sell a horse to Wesley Thorp in 2022 in order to buy Casino from three-time World Series winning pitcher Madison Bumgarner. He’d never ridden the horse, but picked him up from MadBum after Salinas on the way to Spanish Fork that summer. On that first steer he ever ran on Casino, they placed in the go round.
“I just knew he was going to be a horse that would help me get to the next level,” said Koch, the 2019 Canadian heeling champion who’s likely headed to his fifth NFR with Cody Snow. “There aren’t very many great horses, so when you get the opportunity to own one, you’ve got to try it. I just knew that all I needed to worry about was roping when I rode him.”
Koch calls Casino a “little war wagon” because he’s sound and a really easy keeper on the road. He’s all business and prefers to keep to himself. Before Bumgarner got him, the little sorrel was Paul Eaves’ main horse for a couple of seasons. The world champ rode him everywhere from the BFI to the American to the NFR starting in 2017.
Casino placed third in voting for AQHA/PRCA Heel Horse of the Year in 2019 behind Billie Jack Saebens’ Dixon Flowers mare “Sugar” and Brady Minor’s great “Sug.” Then Eaves sold him to Bumgarner, who scored a $26,560 check on him at an amateur roping in Wickenburg in 2020.
Like fine wine, Casino just seems to get better and better. His sire is a paternal grandson of Smart Little Lena out of a Doc’s Oak daughter, and his dam is a Bueno Chex granddaughter. The Flag Ranch bought him as a colt and had Dale Bennett start him before sending him to Jhett Johnson, the 2011 world champ, to season and sell. But Johnson liked Casino at 5 so much that he bought him.
“He wasn’t very gentle when I got him, but he was a true gentleman,” said Johnson, who’s picking up broncs at Casper and other rodeos this summer. “When I stopped walking, he stopped four feet behind me and stayed there until I went again. He had a great amount of focus. If he was tied to a trailer and I rode away with five horses, he didn’t weave or bob or whinny. Allen Bach and I were talking once and he said a lot of great horses have that temperament—that it’s more about the job than their friends.”
While Johnson was competing on Casino, people were always asking him about the gelding because of the way he carried himself.
“One guy said one time, ‘Man, that horse commands respect, doesn’t he?’” recalled Johnson. “And that’s the best way I’ve heard Casino described.”
The Wyoming heeler placed third at the George Strait on Casino when he was just 6 or 7, and he said that Bennett had him started so well, he wasn’t hard to finish. Johnson finally figured he didn’t need to keep a horse like that for eight circuit rodeos, so he sold him to Eaves.
“I was at Cheyenne afterward once, and Paul asked me what I was riding,” Johnson recalled. “I said, ‘Just a horse.’ And he said, ‘You should have called me because I have Casino—Jade Corkill’s using him.” And I asked, ‘Is he still saddled?’ I was about 12 teams away from being up and I called Jade and said ‘Where are you?’ I trotted around there and got on Casino and won about $6,000 on him there, plus he worked great for Jade and Paul.”
Neither Eaves nor Koch can single out any particular trait that stands out about the little NFR heel horse.
“He’s just really solid at everything,” Koch said. “When you leave the box, he gives you everything he has. He wants to set you up for a good shot. He just tries really hard, so all you have to worry about is making the shot happen.”
Eaves agreed.
“He’s just good at everything,” he said. “He’s athletic, talented, can run—he just kind of has it all. He doesn’t have any flaws. He’s pretty fun.”
