Nothing to chance 
Nicholas and Stoli My Guy winning round one of the 2013 BFA World Championship Futurity in record-setting style.
Team Nicholas worked and trained and trained and worked, notching Lisa’s first Equi-Stat barrel racing earnings in 2005. Records indicate steady but modest earnings aboard her home-trained Iron Headed Horse—that is until 2013.
“I had wanted to try futurity colts for a while but kept that thought on the back burner,” says Nicholas, who was unsure how having a young family would mesh with the stringent demands on futurity trainers. “I really didn’t think futurities were going to be a reality until later in my life, if ever. But then I received a phone call from a good friend of ours, Jo Alexander. We were friends but hadn’t seen Jo in a long time and the call came completely out of the blue. She said she had something that had been on her heart and felt like she needed to talk to me about it.”
Alexander felt that Nicholas needed to be competing at futurities.
“She complimented my colt starting skills and told me that I should consider taking it to the next level, because she knew I could do it. So, Jo is responsible for setting the wheels in motion. She told me that I should go visit with Jordon Briggs about it and look at a horse she had for sale at the time,” says Nicholas.
Taking their faith and their friend’s thoughtfully placed advice into consideration, the Nicholas’s made their next move, and although not obvious until later, it proved to be a fortuitous decision.
“We are a family of faith and believe everything happens for a reason. We believe God puts people in our paths at just the right times,” says Nicholas. “There are no coincidences. So, I took Jo seriously and contacted Jordon.”
However, the night before Jeremy and Lisa were scheduled to go look at the horse, Briggs called to tell them that unfortunately her horse had tied up. Given that information, neither party felt optimistic about finalizing a sale.
“But, we headed out there the next day anyway and had a nice visit with Jordon and her mom, Kristie (Peterson). We said some prayers and ultimately decided not to buy Jordon’s nice mare. But, it turned out to be the best decision for all involved because she and I both ended up with rock stars for the year,” says Nicholas.
Meanwhile, Troy Ashford heard she was in the market for a prospect and contacted Nicholas.
“He had a buckskin filly by his nice stallion, Traffic Guy, out of a daughter of Stoli. The Stoli mare was owned by Chuck and Kristie Peterson. I was interested so we went to check her out.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
While the filly in question wasn’t disarmingly exciting to look at there was something about her that convinced Nicholas to seal the deal.
“She had kind of a rail-y build, she was super hairy, and had a big scar on her right hip from a T-post incident. I’m normally a very indecisive person, but I wrote a check for her that day and never looked back. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling.”
The Petersons explained that they had helped Ashfords locate Traffic Guy, and after purchasing the Stoli mare, Six Futures, at the heritage Place Sale, loaned her to them and the foal went home with them after it was weaned. Six Fortunes was unfortunately put down due to injury but had four foals—Stoli My Guy, Spy Guy futuritied in 2014 by Tiany Schuster, Briggs’ 2015 hopeful Frenchmans Future and a fourth owned by Savannah Reeves.
The green-as-a-gourd Stoli My Guy (“Stoli”) came home to Ribbit Ranch and that was when the real work commenced.
“She has been the biggest challenge of any colt to come through our hands,” admits Nicholas. “If she had been the first colt we’d ever started, I’m quite sure I would’ve quit this profession and raised goldfish or something!”
