Kathy Grimes rode homebred, -raised and -trained KG Just Money to a total sweep of the Futurity, while Ashley Schafer and Chrome Plated Fame won the Derby at the Royal Crown event in Buckeye, Arizona.
Top-shelf payouts drew barrel racing and roping competitors to sunny Buckeye, Arizona, for the Royal Crown event from February 5–16.
In the barrel racing, two exceptionally bred horses took top honors in the Royal Crown’s aged-event classes — National Finals Rodeo qualifier Kathy Grimes accomplished a total sweep of the Futurity on homebred KG Just Money, by NFR sire PC Frenchmans Hayday and out of Grimes’ NFR mare KG Justiceweexpected. In the Derby, multiple futurity champion trainer Ashley Schafer won the title on Highpoint Performance Horses’ mare Chrome Plated Fame, by all-time leading barrel racing sire Dash Ta Fame and out of $1.1 million producer Rods Last Ladybug.
Futurity Champion Kathy Grimes and KG Just Money
“That is not what Kathy Grimes does — that’s what Ashley Schafer and Kassie Mowry and all those other girls do, that is not what I do!” Kathy Grimes exclaimed with a laugh about winning both rounds of the Royal Crown Futurity and the average championship. “It’s pretty exciting.”
The Medical Lake, Washington, veterinarian and National Finals Rodeo-qualifying barrel racer won over $54,000 at the Royal Crown on KG Just Money, a 5-year-old gelding she bred, raised and trained.
They kicked off the week with a 17.009 to win the first round, worth $8,062 in the Royal Crown Futurity and $2,701 in the SVE Open Futurity. Grimes admits the pressure of winning the first round started to weigh on her mind prior to the second go, knowing she and “Showie” had a shot at the average.
“His first run we were top of the ground, and it felt really nice. He took a little step in at the second, maybe looking at something on the wall, but he listened to me and we got back. It was super exciting, and we took advantage of top of the ground,” Grimes said. “But now that we’d won it, I had all this pressure. I didn’t want to screw this up, because it would be so cool to win this futurity. I thought I can’t do that; I was trying all day not to psych myself out. I believe in him, but I’m worried about me.”
The second go saw the team improve and get even faster, running a 16.927 on the standard pattern to win the round yet again for another $8,062 in the Royal Crown Futurity and $2,701 in the SVE Open Futurity. An average of 33.936 clinched the Royal Crown title for $16,125 and SVE Open Futurity for $5,403.
“I had two clean runs on my derby horse [KG Jukebox Hero] for the first time in four years and won third in the Derby average, so that was a good positive note to start. Showie stood calmly waiting — sometimes he can get antsy — and when he took off, it kind of bounced me up, and my stupid belt got stuck over the horn. I thought, how dumb am I? I’ve ruined this,” Grimes recalled with a laugh. “Somehow I got it off and it didn’t seem to affect him. He made a nice first barrel and had an awesome, smooth second barrel and a great third barrel. When we crossed the eye and I saw it said 16.927 was a feeling I can’t describe. It was so fun.”
An EquiStat leading breeder of more than $1.4 million, Grimes has built a program based on several generations of powerful maternal lines going back to her mare Jodalito Cielo. One of the most successful products of the program, Showie’s dam KG Justiceweexpected, is now proving herself as a producer after carrying Grimes to the NFR, The American Rodeo, and many more as an EquiStat earner of over $427,000. She’s now produced more than $637,000, a number that’s steadily rising as horses like Showie hit the arena.
“In some ways, he is very similar to her and I can feel a little of her in him. She always had such a really awesome second barrel, and his second sure feels like that,” Grimes said. “He took to the pattern super easy and seemed to be really smart about this, always looking for the barrels, even if he was a little scared. He has a bit of a different style, where he gets into the barrel and his hind end keeps moving around it. He shuts the clock off, and I don’t feel like he’s running that fast or hard. He just gets there and goes around, very fluid.”
Grimes says it never gets old seeing the horses she’s bred, raised and trained make their way to the winner’s circle, especially when she’s jockeying them.
“[Breeding and raising your own] is so much work. Only about one in three makes it to the barrel pen and is successful — there’s injuries and problems and not all of them want to be a futurity horse at 5 years old. They all have their own time, and I don’t mind letting them have it, but for him to be so solid this early on is a little foreign to me,” Grimes said. “You have to build that trust and that bond between them. There’s all these things people don’t see behind the scenes. Even the easy ones are a lot of work, so I’m ready for some rewards and success.”
She added thanks to her sponsors LMF Feeds, Purple Rein Creations, Best Ever Pads and Wheatland Bank, as well as Royal Crown and other incentive programs.
“I’m really grateful for the incentives. It’s wonderful we get these opportunities to run at more money,” she said. “I paid $1,000 to pay Showie in for life, because [PC Frenchmans Hayday] was going out of the program. I’m grateful to be getting that money back and for Royal Crown putting on these races and having all the different incentives involved with it, too.”
Derby Champion Ashley Schafer and Chrome Plated Fame
Chrome Plated Fame earned her first career average championship with the Royal Crown Derby title, under the guidance of her trainer and $2 million rider Ashley Schafer for owners Charlie Cole and Jason Martin of Highpoint Performance Horses.
The 7-year-old mare added over $34,500 in total earnings from the event to her more than $165,700 in EquiStat lifetime earnings.
“When she was a futurity horse, she won rounds and placed in a lot of averages, but I caught barrels to win first place at five futurities on her,” Schafer said. “She was never cheat-y; she would just drag them over. If I rode her to get around them, she’d place in the average, but if I rode her to win and had her real sharp, I would catch barrels. It was frustrating, because I had to ride her so safe to get around the barrels at that time, so I’m really excited she got this win.”
After winning $124,240 in EquiStat reported earnings as a 5-year-old futurity horse in 2023, “Johnnie” fractured her hock at the end of her futurity year and came back to the arena in the early fall of 2024. Schafer says the mare has gotten easier to ride with age and time as far as keeping the barrels standing. A bit change and adapting the way she works Johnnie helped Schafer have her ready for two clean, fast runs in Buckeye.
“It helps to run her in a mullen, because it keeps her shoulders squared up. She’s real wrappy, and she’s four-wheel drive around the turn and then would basically turn inside out, so the mullen helps me keep her squared up in the turn and her shoulders stabilized,” Schafer explained. “I don’t work barrels on her a whole lot, but between rounds at the Royal Crown, I trotted her straight past and then real deep around the backside of the turn. Not a big pocket coming in — I keep her right where I want her distanced from the barrel coming in — but then really deep past the barrel and deep at the three-quarter point. I never let her finish super close to the barrel.”
Schafer says she’s also learned that Johnnie tends to be easier to stay clean on when she lets the mare travel in a more natural way of going with her nose out.
“I caught a barrel on her at the Quarter Horse Show the week before and at [the Jackson, Mississippi, pro rodeo]. I was like, what am I doing different, why is she coming back so hard at the second barrel?” Schafer explained. “She wants to have her nose out farther than I prefer when I ride her around. It’s her natural way of carrying herself. I was making her bridle up and go around more collected. She rides with her nose out, but she doesn’t run that way — she runs with a lot of collection. If I overdo driving her into the bridle, I get more collection out of her and it’s harder to get around the barrels. I still want to make sure she’s soft and gives me her face, but even going down the alley now I let her keep her head up and out instead of in my hands. It sounds crazy, but it’s a know-your-horse situation.”
Schafer won the first round of the Royal Crown Derby on her 2024 Pink Buckle Futurity champion gelding Fiesta By Design with a 16.905, and Johnnie came in fourth with a 17.211 for $3,508 in the Royal Crown Derby and fifth in the SVE Open Derby for $759. While a downed barrel in the second go kept “Mitch” from winning the Derby himself, it opened the door for Johnnie to earn the title. She put up a 16.919 for second and $5,396 in the Royal Crown Derby and $2,025 in the SVE Open Derby.
Johnnie’s average of 34.130 earned $12,951 as the Royal Crown Derby champion and $4,050 as the SVE Open Derby reserve champion.
“She was really flawless. She has a pretty style. Those fast horses it’s hard to be perfect, but Johnnie’s cool because she’s really fast and can do it pretty,” Schafer said. “In the first round she was bottom of the ground after the big drag, and the ground was really good there all week, but she’s small and they dig the ground pretty deep [during the big drags]. I had a lot of confidence going into the second round knowing I was top of the ground. That’s the nice thing about the futurities and derbies is it’s fair — everyone runs in reverse order the next day. I think those three-tenths difference between runs was the deeper ground versus top of the ground.”
Everything coming together to earn Johnnie’s first average title is a win for the mare’s entire team, Schafer says.
“It was a huge accomplishment. I was mostly happy to do it for her and for her owners, because they’ve been so supportive through the highs and lows. She is a super talented individual, so it means a lot,” Schafer said, adding thanks to her husband Seth and sponsors Classic Equine, Martin Saddlery, Forco, Summit, Equi-Boss, NeutraBac pH, Schoneberg Performance Bits, MVP and BetweenTheReins.us.
Fans of Johnnie can watch her entire training journey on betweenthereins.us, an educational barrel horse training video platform featuring instructors Schafer, Jolene Montgomery and Joy Wargo.
This article was originally published in the April 2025 issue of Barrel Horse News.
