Tricia Aldridge, Ashley Schafer, Kelly Bowser and Brittany Tonozzi earned aged-event titles at the Better Barrel Races OKC Futurity from December 10–15, 2024
Photos by Traci Davenport Photography
The 2024 Better Barrel Races Oklahoma City Futurity marked the final time for the event to take place in the historic Jim Norick Coliseum. The event will move into the new state-of-the-art coliseum at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds upon the facility’s completion in 2025. With over $1.092 million up for grabs, competitors made the most of their runs down the famed Gateway of Champions alley as 2024’s futurity and derby horses competed for final honors of the year and 2025 futurity horses made some of the first runs of their careers.
Futurity Champion Tricia Aldridge and Adios Pantalones
Tricia Aldridge ended her 4-year-old stallion Adios Pantalones’ record-breaking futurity year with a bang. The pair won their 10th futurity of the year, topping the OKC Futurity with the fastest time of the event.
“It’s super cool that OKC was No. 10. He has won or been reserve at 15 futurities, which is ridiculously amazing,” Aldridge said. “He’s been a unicorn all year, stayed solid and sound and happy. He’s taught me a lot. He’s the ultimate team player — every time I send him down the alley, I know I have a chance. Even if I make mistakes, he does what he can to help me. I never have to ask him for anything; he just wants to do it. That’s super special to have one like that, especially a stallion.”
As of press time, “Adios” won $558,711 in 2024 with about $491,000 of that being futurity money, breaking Hello Stella’s earnings record of $445,029 to become the highest-earning futurity horse of all time.
“The whole year has been pretty unreal. I knew he was a great horse, so I definitely had all my eggs in one Easter basket. Starting out the year, I’m sure people thought I was a looney tune when I said I was going to win $300,000 on this colt who looked like he was loping the pattern,” Aldridge said with a laugh.
The pair’s 15.447 in the first go at OKC placed eighth for $897 and secured them a spot in the finals. A 15.744 in the second go wasn’t quite the run Aldridge hoped for, but Adios made up for it in the final round. He clocked an impressive 15.107 for the fastest of the event, securing the championship average of 30.554 and $27,816.
“The second round the pressure was off, but we were better on the ground so I was hoping maybe he can come back a little faster and improve my time since it’s an average. He went in there like Dash For Cash himself and about left me at the first barrel. I almost fell off, and he had to get back under me,” Aldridge said with a laugh. “Coming into the finals, I was ready for him to be super fast, so I tried to stay up in the saddle longer, because as soon as you sit down, he sets. He’s 1,300 pounds of muscle and is so strong. Before we went in, I told him, ‘OK buddy, this is your last run of your futurity year, make it count.’ I swear he knows, and he had a heck of a run in the finals.”
Adios has a large following on social media through Aldridge’s page Red Hot Running Horses. She says everything he’s accomplished is special to her because of the recognition he deserves as an athlete.
“I know he’s that one-in-a-million horse, and it’s so cool that he has all the fans and people who love him and want to see him. It’s just really meaningful,” the Sanger, Texas, trainer said. “I think he knows he’s the best, and I think he likes to stop and see his fans, too.”
Aldridge is hopeful that Adios’ legacy will last beyond himself through his offspring. She’s also got her sights set on their next earnings goals in the arena, with plans to hit the derbies and professional rodeos in 2025.
“I always thought he was special, and it’s so cool that people will hopefully be referring to him for a very long time. When he crossed $300,000, I said let’s double it. We’re only like $40,000 from $600,000 [after OKC], so hopefully when we get to $600,000 we’re going to go for $1 million, because I’d love for him to be the first stallion to win $1 million,” Aldridge said.
She added thanks to the team that helps Adios succeed and keep her program running.
“I want to thank my vet Dr. Don Lee, DVM, of Double X Equine, and my shoer, Cutter Holloway. Big thanks to Fallon Taylor with Ranch Dressn and Tacktical, because she’s the only reason I match,” Aldridge said with a laugh. “I’m so thankful to my horse. It’s still not even real. Horses can change your life, and I don’t even think he knows how special he is. I’m forever grateful and excited to ride his babies in a couple years and hopefully see another age of winners coming along.”
Derby Champion Kelly Bowser and Quarento Tres
Oklahoma has been good to Ohio barrel horse trainer Kelly Bowser the last several months. Hot off a huge Pink Buckle Derby win in October in Guthrie, Bowser and 5-year-old gelding Quarento Tres rolled back down south to win another Derby championship in Oklahoma City.
“Opie” earned a total $10,608 at the OKC event for owners Chad and Mandi West and the prestige of the title on all their resumes.
“I tell people that they might tell you congratulations a month later, and it still feels like you did it yesterday. It feels really good,” Kelly said humbly. “We had that big win at the Pink Buckle, and I’ve run second and third at the BBR and BFA, but I’ve never won a Derby or Futurity there, so that was another big win for me.”
The OKC Derby ran on an average of two go-rounds, with no final round. Kelly and Opie started fast right off the bat, clocking a 15.277 to place second in the first round for $3,105 behind Katie Jo Boyd-Halbert’s 15.211 on Miz Milania. A 15.257 placed fourth for $1,552 in a salty second go that saw Ceri Ward on top with a 15.137 on Slick Swingin Gypsy.
Kelly and Opie finished with a winning average of 30.534, earning $5,951 for the championship.
“He’s just fast, crazy fast. The first round was kind of deep; I was fourth out [on the ground] and he struggled through it. Even on the way home, Chad said, ‘Look at him, when he gets halfway home, he starts shifting gears.’ It felt crazy good. Of course, you always want to win, but second or third is good, especially if you can do it twice in a row,” Kelly said. “Even if I can’t ride, he makes me look good. You can have a superstar rider and a not-so-good horse and it’ll make it look like you can’t ride at all, but when you’ve got one like him that can do it by himself, he makes you look good.”
The gelding, who recently crossed $200,000 in lifetime earnings, is special to Kelly and his wife Danielle as well as the Wests not just because of his talent in the arena.
“He’s such a good horse to be around and to ride. I ride him every day, just because I like being around him and sitting on his back, even if we don’t do anything. He’s just a good boy,” Kelly said. “If you go to his gate, he meets you right at the gate, like ‘What are we doing now?’ He’s fun to be around and a really talented horse. He’s just amazing.”
The Bowsers and Wests have a longtime trainer/owner partnership that goes back 15 years. Working together for the good of the horse remains at the center of Kelly’s program, a philosophy that has helped the Swanton, Ohio, trainer churn out winner after winner and cultivate lifelong friendships.
“My wife helps a bunch too, and we’re a team. Like I told Chad, I may be the one sitting on your horse, but if you see something, you let me know. If we can fix it together, that’s even better. If we can get just a little faster, let’s do it. Throw it at me,” Kelly explained. “Chad, who owns him, is usually straight-faced and doesn’t get emotional, looks like a stone-cold killer. But when we came out [after the second round] and I was walking around taking Opie’s splint boots off, Chad came up to me, and the closer he got, the bigger grin he got. He gave me a big hug and told me he loved me.”
The Bowsers’ team-player attitude has also resulted in a proven training program that produces horses that are solid and consistent for lifelong careers at any level.
“Growing up, my family didn’t have a bunch of money, but we didn’t go without. If we bought a horse that didn’t pan out as a superstar, I could sell it to kids or people just getting into it and they can go out there and look good,” Kelly said. “I had a couple horses I didn’t get along with, but they worked nice, and then me and my wife sold them to two young girls, and they went on and made us look good. If someone else can go on with them and do well, that’s great for them.”
The Bowsers added thanks to Kelly’s sponsors Equinety, 3S Custom Equine, DAC Vitamins and Minerals, and EquiBoss Performance – NutraBac pH. They also thanked Ross Wright for producing a great show at OKC.
Rookie Futurity Champion Ashley Schafer and HP Hotrod
Royally bred to succeed in the barrel pen, HP Hotrod stepped up to the plate as a winner right off the bat. The 4-year-old stallion owned by Highpoint Performance Horses and expertly trained and jockeyed by Ashley Schafer won $70,000 in the first month of his competitive career, highlighted by a championship at the OKC Rookie Futurity for 2025 futurity colts and a reserve title in the OKC Slot Race.
“I’ve never had a 3-year-old be that competitive that early in the year. I didn’t have to ask him to do that; he just confidently gave me everything he had, and that is the sign of a very special horse,” Schafer said. “He just did it. He took over and ran like a seasoned open horse. He is incredibly good-minded, so I had no doubt he could handle that kind of pressure. He never faltered; it never frazzled him.”
OKC adjusted its slot race rules in 2024 to allow horses to compete that had previously ran in a slot race, so “Boomer” was entered up in both the Barrel Futurities of America and OKC slot races. He won money in the first run of his career, placing fifth in the BFA SuperStakes Slot Race for $14,000 in mid-November. He performed well that week in the BFA Juvenile, but Ashley made some changes in the couple weeks prior to OKC to further sharpen the young talent. She also changed his bit from a short shank Ed and Martha Wright to a short shank Carolina Bits mullen stabilizer to help keep his shoulders more square.
“I changed my bridle and made some adjustments in how I was working him, just made sure he was free up into the second barrel, because that’s where he got a little short in the Juvenile,” Schafer explained. “I didn’t work him super hard but spent a lot of time doing slow work and making sure he was soft and correct.”
Her modifications paid off when, at draw No. 1 of the night, Boomer clocked a 15.448 in the OKC Slot Race to ultimately finish second for $35,000. He clocked a 15.580 the following morning to finish ninth in the first round of the Rookie for $1,922. The second round saw a stellar performance of 15.276, worth $8,533 for the go-round win and $11,377 for the OKC Rookie average championship of 30.856.
“Being a competitor is very mental, so I try to keep a clear mind. I was pretty excited to be first out [in the slot race], because I don’t want to think about what I have to outrun. I want a clear head to focus on my task,” Schafer said. “I went in there confident, because that horse is incredible and he goes in there to do his job, so I let him go make his run. The next day, he drew fourth on the ground, and the ground wasn’t bad but it was deep, so I tried to make the smoothest pass possible. The second round, he was second out on the ground, so I felt confident about that, and he totally exceeded my expectations.”
Boomer’s success comes as no surprise to Schafer. She also trained and rode his full sister for Highpoint, 2018 mare Chrome Plated Fame (“Johnnie”). Both are by all-time leading barrel sire Dash Ta Fame and out of EquiStat $1 million dam Rods Last Ladybug by Sharp Rodney.
Schafer futuritied Johnnie in 2023 and has won over $132,000 in EquiStat reported earnings on the mare, despite an injury that kept her out most of 2024. Johnnie is now back in top form, and the Comanche, Texas, horse trainer says the similarities between the two are striking.
“They have so many similarities, even down to bridling them. When you put the bit on them, you can’t tell where it needs to be, because they jack around with their head and open their mouth, and they do it forever. They’re the only two horses I have that do that,” Schafer said with a laugh, also noting that the two even run in the same bit (read more on page 9).
The two are also different, and Schafer says some of that comes from adapting her training style for Boomer after knowing Johnnie so well.
“What’s similar is how great they are. They’re both extremely gritty, but she is a lot wrappier than him. He doesn’t get as close to the barrels as she does; he feels a lot freer. I also trained them differently. I had already ran her, and I hit so many to barrels to win so much on her that I basically trained him not to turn the whole time I was training him,” Schafer explained. “I spent more time telling him no than telling him yes when I came to the turn. She has such a cool move and I let her make it, so with him knowing that move was so natural and knowing it was going to be in there, I trained him to wait for me.”
Having a longstanding good relationship with Jason Martin and Charlie Cole of Highpoint has also helped ensure Schafer is able to make the best decisions for their horses in her program.
“They’re awesome, and we discuss a lot of things and try to make plans as a team. They’re really good to hear me out and make decisions that are best for the horse,” Schafer said. “I’ve rode for Jason and Charlie for quite some time, and we have a good relationship and trust each other, so it’s been a great partnership.”
She added thanks to Highpoint, Steve and Ross Wright of the BBR, and sponsors Martin Saddlery, Classic Equine, Summit Animal Health, Forco, EquiBoss, MVP, Silver Lining Herbs, Schoneberg Performance Bits and BetweenTheReins.us. Fans of Johnnie and Boomer can watch their training journey, along with many other horses, on betweenthereins.us.
Slot Race Champion Brittany Tonozzi and Rain Bo Dash
Brittany Tonozzi jockeyed another homebred talent to the winner’s circle, winning the OKC Slot Race for $80,000 with a fast 15.410 on Rain Bo Dash.
The gelding followed his slot race performance with a 15.353 in the first round of the Rookie Futurity to place second for $5,970. A 15.781 in the second round helped the duo finish third in the average with a 31.134, worth $6,057.
By all-time leading barrel horse sire Dash Ta Fame and out of Tonozzi’s National Finals Rodeo mare Steele Magnolias, the 3-year-old gelding won a total $92,935 on the week to kickstart his young career.
This article was originally published in the February 2025 issue of Barrel Horse News.
