Billie Jack Saebens and 6-year-old stallion The Notorious B I G got a long-awaited futurity win June 2 in Oklahoma City at the American Rope Horse Futurity Association’s Red Bud Spectacular, winning $14,205 as they bested a field of 98 other horses in the 6-&-Under Heeling.
Full ARHFA Red Bud Spectacular Heeling Results
The Notorious B I G has $97,062 in QData as of June 5, with six months remaining in his futurity career.
“it’s been a long time coming,” Saebens, 35, said. “We’ve been, I don’t know, however long we’ve been close and placed about every hole and been in the lead and something always happened. So finally finish it off, it was nice. I knew my horse was going to be good. I knew Andrew’s going to do a good job. This was real, real easy.”
The Full 2024 Rope Horse Futurity Schedule
Shane and Jessica Boston’s Southern Ranches owns The Notorious B I G, and the 2018 black stallion came from Dixon Flowers’ Quarter Horses who owned the horse’s dam, AQHA/PRCA Horse of the Year DT Sugar Chex Whiz. Saebens also campaigned her in the PRCA after her show career with J.D. Yates, and he and the Dixon Flowers crew opted to cross her on Winston Hansma and Danny Motes’ CD Lights, with The Notorious B I G as the result.
The horse won third at the 2023 ARHFA World Championship, and he’s placed at nearly every futurity he’s entered along the way—but this is his first win, this time behind 2024 RodeoHouston champ and NFR average champ Andrew Ward.
“His foot speed through the turn, how he measures the cow—that was Sugar’s best deal whenever I was roping on her,” Saebens said. “I just put my hand down and, basically, and he’s gotten to that point now to where I don’t have to do much steering. He reads the cow good, I don’t have to worry about getting too close, and I can just put my hand down and kick around there.”
—TRJ—
