RENO, Nev. — One could say Zane Davis and Reymanator terminated the competition at the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s Snaffle Bit Futurity with their 5.5-point margin of victory–652.5 composite score–to win the NRCHA’s premiere event in the Open division.

In true reined cow horse fashion, the 2009 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Championship came down to the cow work. As a matter of fact, it came down to the very last run in the cow work. The in-arena action at the Reno Livestock Events Center brought the crowd to the edge of its seat Oct. 4 to conclude two weeks of competition from Sept. 20-Oct. 4.

The pair of Davis and Reymanator–with the last draw spot of No. 25–had topped the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity preliminaries. The two had marked the high score in the herd work with a 218.5, but 214 in the rein work meant that he was second going into the cow work.

“I drew up last in the herd. It wasn’t ideal, but I had three good cows picked that I really liked, and Todd Bergen came in right before me and cut all three of them!” Zane laughed, then added, “But we had three more, and two were good and one was excellent. In the reining, I was almost embarrassed–it just wasn’t that good.”

But Davis and Reymanator, owned by John Semanik of Jacksonville, Fla., came back in the cow work, thrilling the crowd with a run that earned a score of 220.

“Looking back, not doing well in the reining was probably the best thing for me because it made me mad and took care of my nerves,” Davis said. “I figured I might have blown it, so I was just going to go for it in the cow work.”

The Whitehall, Mont., trainer knew that Reymanator, by Dual Rey out of Savannah, was going to be great from the start. “I knew this horse could win it when we bought him,” said Davis, who collected the $100,000 Open champion’s check, two Bob’s Custom Saddles, an original Morrison NRCHA Cow Horse Bronze, two Gist Silversmiths champion buckles, custom-designed cowboy boots from Rios of Mercedes, two monogrammed Cinch vests, and Platinum Performance.

The NRCHA victory for Davis and Reymanator in Reno was a follow up to their “pre-futurity” win from the end of August at the National Stock Horse Association’s Snaffle Bit Futurity Open in Paso Robles, Calif.

Splitting the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Reserve Championship, with each collecting $70,000, were Todd Crawford riding Shiners Nickle, and Boyd Rice aboard Picka Patcha Pepto, with identical scores of 446.5. Shiners Nickle is owned by Michelle Cannon, and Picka Patcha Pepto is owned by Larry Hall Cutting Horses.

For complete show results, visit the Web site: www.nrcha.com