PASO ROBLES — Todd Bergen revved up Roxanne Koepsell’s Peptos Shiney Pistol at the National Stock Horse Association’s Snaffle Bit Futurity Aug. 15-18, winning the Open Futurity and its $17,088 purse at the Mid-state Fairgrounds as the NRCHA Futurity nears next week.

The 3-year-old chestnut son of One Time Pepto, out of Shining Spark mare Shiners Lil Pistol, marked a 665.50 composite, then was awarded the title by virtue of a higher cow work score over Jake Telford on Camilla The Cat, who had tallied the same composite. Camilla The Cat (WR This Cats Smart X Bit Of Starlight), owned by Newton White of Santa Fe, N.M., was bred by Art and Sandy Haskins of Clements.

In the Non Pro division, Jayson Fisher of Nipomo continued his remarkable year by taking his 3-year-old red roan, Catjumpoverspoon 10 (Hes A Peptospoonful X Catjumpedovertheboon X High Brow Cat), to titles in both the Non Pro and Intermediate Non Pro Futurities. He also kept alive his hot streak on his son’s Derby horse, Little Brown Indian (Hickorys Indian Pep X No Pleasing This Chic), winning both the Non Pro and Intermediate NSHA Non Pro Derbies.

“I was trying to think of a good word to describe our year…I can’t believe it!,” said Fisher, whose combined earnings from the four NSHA Non Pro titles surpassed $7,200. “It has a lot to do with the horses, of course, but it’s just been crazy — every show has been getting better and better, more and more. I just almost can’t believe it.”

“We’ll keep going, and hopefully it doesn’t break,” he added.

Fisher trains his horses himself with occasional coaching. The last 18 months, he has sought advice from Phillip Ralls, trying to strengthen his herd work.

“I’m the kind of non pro who wants to do it myself because that’s where I get my satisfaction,” said Fisher, a contractor. “Even if I don’t win. I get the satisfaction from the training part of it. I like the process in which they grow.”

After Reno, where Fisher will show his dynamic duo in both the Non Pro Futurity and hackamore events, respectively, Fisher along with his wife Teresa and son Wyatt will compete in the Southern California Reined Cow Horse Association’s Non Pro Triple Crown at Casner’s Ranch in Temecula Nov. 15.

Another California trainer on a Derby streak is Justin Wright in the Open division. The 27-year-old rising star, who grew up in the saddle of his family’s Wright Quarter Horse ranch in San Juan Bautista, has advanced from $0 to more than $150,000 in Equi-Stat reinied cow horse open earnings in only 5 1/2 years. Much of those open winnings came in derby success with No Chic Flicks, now campaigning with Laurie Ward, and this year’s derby sensation, Wanna Winna Prize (Smokums Prize X I’ll Be A Winning Gal X Ill Be Smart), who won the NSHA event by a single point over Jake Telford on Bonnie Schwenkfelder’s Shining Cinderella. Wright earned $8,200 with the title.

Earlier this year, he finished second in the NRCHA Stakes on the chestnut stallion, who with a snip resembles his sire, the highest-earning 3-year old in NRCHA history, so much that Wright refers to him as “Junior.”

“He looks identical to him,” said Wright, who’ll compete with Junior in the hackamore competition in Reno in addition to showing a pair of 3-year olds in the Futurity Open. “He’s very similar to his dad. He has a huge stop. All Prize’s offspring have that huge stop. He hits the ground with everything he has. And then he’s very supple and bendy. When I’m on a cow, he can move his body into some pretty neat places.”

Wright, whose brother Greg won the Snaffle Bit Futurity a year before he was born, recalls watching Smokums Prize win the 2000 Snaffle Bit Futurity when he was 14 years old.

“I remember sitting there in the stands, knowing that this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life,” he said.

Two years later, he competed for the first time at the Snaffle Bit Futurity, a finalist on Mr Hollywood Rooster in the Non Pro, Intermediate Non Pro and Amateur finals, respectively, at age 16. He didn’t have his driver’s license yet, but he already was racing down the fence against adult competition.

Wright appreciates the new Derby classes at the NSHA Futurity since it gives the 4- and 5-year olds additional time in the show pen before they compete in the bridle.

“I think it’s a great show — one more spot we get to show,” he said. “There are getting to be some great events for the 4- and 5-year olds now. In the two years before they go in the bridle, it makes a difference when you can keep them showing.”

MORE ONLINE: Http://bit.ly/309B_039B_nsha