Anita Ellis wins the Royal Crown Futurity and finishes second in the Derby, while Jordynn Knight earned her second Royal Crown Derby title of the year while at the Royal Crown Race in Rock Springs, Wyoming, from August 6–10.
The annual Royal Crown race in Rock Springs, Wyoming, from August 6–10 saw aged-event competitors making the trek from all over the country for what many competitors repeatedly say is a can’t-miss event on their schedules. At the end of the week, The Goodbye Lane offspring stole the show, with several different horses by the EquiStat leading $9.5 million sire going first and second in the Futurity, winning the Derby, and owning the fastest time of the week. High school senior Jordynn Knight secured her second Royal Crown Derby title of the year, while Idaho horse trainer Anita Ellis cleaned up with the Royal Crown Futurity championship and Derby reserve championship.
Royal Crown and SVE Open Futurity Champion Anita Ellis and SGL Rico
Anita Ellis dominated the aged-event conversation in Rock Springs, winning the Royal Crown and SVE Open Futurity championships on SGL Rico and finishing as reserve champion in the Royal Crown and SVE Open Derbies on A Dash Of Flingnfame.
All totaled, Ellis won $151,776 at the event — $122,878 on “Rico” and $28,898 on “Jessie.”
“It was an exciting week,” Ellis said. “I would like to thank my family for sacrificing with me being gone, and also the Royal Crown. Their payout is just amazing. To have the opportunity they’ve provided us with is just awesome. South Valley Equine helped take care of my Derby mare, so I did have a great weekend with a lot of people helping me in the background. It was fun, and the opportunity available to us is great. Sometimes the Derby payouts are tiny compared to the Futurity, and that’s normal and I like that, but it paid so well in the Derby, too. The Royal Crown is always a race that I’ll get to.”
Ellis and Rico kicked off their winning week with a 15.091 in the first round of the Futurity, placing third in both the Royal Crown for $14,625 and SVE Open Futurity for $1,850, plus over $4,000 for placing on carry-overs to the Open race.
“My first run, he kind of froze up a little in the holding pen. I don’t circle the wings; I take him in and set him and let him relax and then I head to the first. When I brought him in, I was nervous because when he froze, it wasn’t a long time but at the time it felt like a long time when you feel like people are waiting for you when it’s your turn,” Ellis said with a laugh. “I got him set and started my approach and remember thinking I’d have to keep riding to the first, because I was a little more squeezed approaching the barrel than I like. He’s over 16 hands, so I give him plenty of space at the barrels, because he can swing his butt around and catch a barrel. He came around that barrel so fast and got right where I put him to turn, and I remember feeling like he shot out of a cannon to the second barrel. I was really excited in my run to hear my time; I knew he was going to clock.”
Ellis said Rico’s fast time in the first go took a lot of pressure off her as a rider for the rest of the week. Her laidback attitude paid off with a 15.134 to win the second round of the Royal Crown Futurity for $22,500 and SVE Open Futurity for $2,823 for a winning average of 30.225.
The Royal Crown Futurity average title paid $45,000, while the SVE Open Futurity championship added $5,646 to the pair’s earnings.
“I was ecstatic. Once I show people what he’s got, I was able to relax and just have fun after that [first round] and enjoy my next runs, and it was all just fun,” the Blackfoot, Idaho, horse trainer said. “That race was a tight race, which is awesome. I love to see that, where people and horses are running so great. There’s a lot of talented horses there, so for him to compete at that level, I was so excited.”
Ellis purchased Rico as a yearling from breeder Shana Gibson because of his maternal side, not to mention being by $9.5 million sire The Goodbye Lane.
“I was really excited about him, because I really liked his mom, her Winners Version mare, and I thought that would be a super cool cross with The Goodbye Lane,” Ellis said. “I had Erin Beukelman put 60 days on him as a 2-year-old, and then I took him after that and started working him on the barrels and other stuff I like to do with my colts.”
Ellis took Rico with her to Arizona for two months early in his 3-year-old year, using his progress to gauge her decision about whether to go ahead with him as a 4-year-old futurity colt or hold him to run as a 5-year-old.
“That was a really good start for him, because he got some exposure to different arenas and gave him a jump ahead. He was doing really well, so I decided to run him as a 4-year-old,” she explained.
She says he ran timid at his first outing in November, but by springtime as the futurity schedule started picking up, Rico was coming on just as Ellis had hoped. He placed along before finishing as reserve champion at Dash For Dollars Ogden, Utah, and won the Southwest Desert Classic Futurity in Cedar City, Utah. Unfortunately, an injury after being cast in his stall kept Rico from running at the Ruby Buckle Central, but the gelding came back strong at the Royal Crown Canada race before coming in hot to Rock Springs.
“He came home with quite a bit of money after that race in Canada, so I was really excited to run him in Rock Springs. I couldn’t wait to run there, and he surpassed my expectations of him,” Ellis said. “He’s really sweet and just fun for me to ride. My other two horses are very intense, but he is just a joy to be around. He’s been really fun for me, because he’s calm.”
Royal Crown and SVE Open Derby Champion Jordynn Knight and Heza Swift Spyder
Jordynn Knight won her second Royal Crown Derby championship of the year, winning the Rock Springs title on Heza Swift Spyder after claiming the Buckeye, Arizona, Derby championship in February on Dashing French Belle.
The 17-year-old high school senior of Roosevelt, Utah, left Rock Springs with $44,071.
“I didn’t expect to win it once, let alone twice. It’s an amazing feeling. I’m just so grateful for both horses,” Knight said graciously. “It means a lot. Rock Springs was probably my biggest win. We’ve never really done good there, and the week before I’d just won another Derby average championship [at the Red Rocket event], so I was feeling pretty good after that one. I certainly didn’t know what to expect because the competition was so tight, but I was thrilled to do that. I still can’t believe it.”
“Mater” and Knight posted a 15.238 in the first round to place second in both the Royal Crown Derby for $4,780 and SVE Open Derby for $2,155. A 15.219 was fifth in a salty second round for $3,187 in the Royal Crown and $808 in the SVE Open Derby. Their winning average of 30.457 banked $12,747 for the Royal Crown championship and $5,207 for the SVE Open Derby.
“The first day, I never know what to expect on our first run in a pen. He’s getting more consistent, but sometimes he won’t work the best the day in certain arenas. The first day he worked amazing; probably one of our best runs,” Knight recounted. “I just wanted to make another clean run for the average, and he turned his first so good the first day that I let him roll harder the second day. We got a stride by it, but he came back hard and worked amazing.”
The Knights purchased Mater as a 3-year-old before sending him to Stacy Glause for training. He won over $32,000 as a 5-year-old futurity horse with Glause before really coming on his first derby year, earning close to $80,000 between Glause and Knight. Mater now has EquiStat earnings well over $200,000, but even so, Knight says the win took her by surprise with so many top-tier derby horses in contention at the event.
“I knew I had a chance to win it, but when they announced that I was leading the average, I was shocked that it held. I didn’t think it would,” Knight said. “I was thrilled and sweating it out to the very end.”
Knight added special thanks to Glause and her family, as well as her sponsors EquiBoss Performance, Buffalo Bling Rodeo Shirts, and Elite Rehab and Conditioning.
This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue of Barrel Horse News.
