Skyler Nicholas and Stoli My Guy dominated at the State Fair of Texas 5D Barrel Race in Dallas, Texas, winning the entire 1D.
Running the fastest time by over half a second, Skyler Nicholas took home more than $4,000 at the State Fair of Texas 5D Barrel Race held at the Fair Park Coliseum in Dallas, Texas. Running three horses, Stoli My Guy, the 2009 mare by Traffic Guy rose to the top, running a 15.228 to win the 1D buckle and $3,469.
“My mom did all of the barrel training on her, and ran her as a four year old,” Nicholas said. “At the end of her futurity year, she broke the 25 year-old record held at the Jim Norick Coliseum in Oklahoma City.”
With an impressive career, “Stoli” has more than $261,600 EquiStat recorded lifetime earnings. At 13, she tore her ACL. At this point, the Nicholas’s had already been breeding “Stoli” and had several foals out of her. With no guarantee she would come back from her injury, they decided to retire her.
“Fast forward to this year and we watched her run full speed and stop on a dime several times out on the pasture and decided to try one last time and see if she still wanted to run barrels,” Nicholas explained. “Her third run back she ended up winning round one of the Kinder Open this year. I have never been on a mare that loves their job as much as she does, and she definitely shows it. Stoli is known for her warm-up pen antics but loves her job and has just as much fun as I do when we run.”
Nicholas also ran a 15.783 on 2012 mare Perrywatter Dash (Stratospheric x Fire Waters Free x Fire Water Flit) to be 3rd in the 2D worth $578 and home-raised 2017 Stoli daughter, Two Starts Collided (Dash Ta Fame x Stoli My Guy x Traffic Guy) to be 10th in the 2D.
“It is always very fun to run Stoli’s baby at the same races. Her daughter has a completely different style from her, so it is definitely an adjustment,” Nicholas said.
With 178 entries, the race paid out $13,524. Full event results can be found at KCI Rodeo/State Fair of Texas.
