News From NCHA, December 6, 2000

World Championship Futurity

FIELD SET FOR AMATEUR SEMI-FINALS AT NCHA FUTURITY

CURT BLAKEWAY AND MISS N SHORTY LEAD THE WAY

Fort Worth, Texas --- After an exciting second round of competition during the Amateur Division of the National Cutting Horse Association World Championship Futurity, 47 horses earned the right to advance to the semi-finals round and a shot at the Amateur Championship. Leading the way is Evanston, Washington resident Curt Blakeway riding Miss N Short. Blakeway and Miss N Short scored 219 in today's action, giving them a combined two-round total of 435.5 to lead the pack after the two preliminary go-rounds.

Just behind Blakeway is Mark Pearson and his horse Flo Little Lena. Pearson is from Spearman, Texas and the duo had a combined two-round score of 434 points. In third is Dustin Adams of Dublin, Texas riding Yellow Roan of Texas.

A total of 47 riders and horses from the original list of 260 entries advance to semi-finals round, which begins at 10 a.m. Thursday, December 7. From the semi-finals, the top 15 pairs advance to the Amateur Finals competition on Friday, December 8 at 5 p.m.. The total purse for this years' NCHA World Championship Futurity Division is just over $218,000.

The total purse for this year's NCHA World Championship Futurity is $2.8 million. The event concludes with the Open Division Championship on Sunday, December 10. This marks the 39^th annual Futurity event, which has been held at Fort Worth's Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum since 1967.

For complete results or more information, visit the NCHA website at www.nchacutting.com, or call the NCHA offices at 817-244-6188.

end