September long weekend brought barrel racers to Brandon, Manitoba from all directions. Contestants and horses from 5 provinces and 5 states came to town to take a piece of the $12,000 added money Northern Lights Futurity and Derby.
The 2012 edition of the annual event started off Friday night with the Ronald McDonald House Charity Barrel Race. The entry fee for this event is a $50 (or more) pledge to the charity. Contestants run for added money and prizes. Over $8000 was raised for the cause this year. Sierra Booth was the 1D champion on Perks Masterhand. They won a beautiful custom buckle and prize money for the win. The 2D winner was Cassandra Peters on Malibu Rum, the 3D Connie Mansfield on Doc, the 4D Don Hillrud on Buddy. Complete jackpot results can be found here or through the Northern Lights website.
Saturday the Futurity and Derby action heated up with the first round of racing. Winning over $1200 for the round 1 futurity win was Alberta trainer Randa Nugent on DR Brenda. Visit the futurity site for complete results. The first round of the derby paid almost $900. Rhonda Vergouwen and her horse Leos Book took home the derby win.
The second round of the Northern Lights Futurity and Derby ran Sunday morning. The Futurity win for the second go went to Jalaine Anderson and Kidual Ote. The derby was won by Laci Suitor and Swift Machine.
The short go was exciting with the fast time of the entire event being posted by Short Go and Futurity winner Lynnette Brodoway from Brooks, AB and her Manitoba bred horse BB Pure Reed. Lynette was also in contention in the derby on her horse SR Root Sixty Six putting pressure on the fast time horse (and traveling partner) Laci Suitor and Swift Machine. Laci ended up 0.041 seconds faster than Lynette (using her fast time back and short go time) to win the derby championship.
Complete event results can be found on the Northern Lights website
Unfortunately I did miss several of the futurity runs in the short go, but check out the video of the ones I did get and all of the derby runs here. Enjoy 🙂
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