(Fort Worth, TX) -- After five days of Round One competition in the Open division of the 2001 NCHA World Championship Futurity, two horses walked away with matching scores to lead the class.

The first horse to score the leading 221.5 points was up on the first day of the 20-day show. Guy Woods, who will be inducted into the NCHA Riders Hall of Fame during the Futurity, rode Bill and Jo Ellard's three-year-old stallion, Kodo, for 221.5 points on Tuesday, November 27. Kodo is sired by CD Olena and is out of the Ellard's leading broodmare, Laney Doc, by Doc Quixote. The Woods and the Ellard's make their home at EE Ranches in Pilot Point, Texas.

The second horse to step up to the 221.5 mark did so on Friday, December 1. Brad Vaughn of Lincoln, California, rode Dave Miller's Hes A Peptospoonful to make the race a tie. Hes A Peptospoonful is a stallion son of the 2001 Futurity's leading sire, Peptoboonsmal, and out of Miss Smarty Rey by Smart Little Lena.

The two stallions, Kodo and Hes A Peptospoonful, rose to the top of the 569-entry Open division, and are assured a place in the second round of competition. The scores of the first two rounds will be tallied, and the only the top 60 horses will continue on to the clean-slate Semi-Finals competition. And from there, of the 569 entries that began the class, only the top 20 remaining horses will be eligible to compete for the first place check of $202,226.

Tomorrow, December 2, begins the second round of Open competition, to be followed on Tuesday, December 4 with the first go-round of Non-Professional competition. In sum, the over 1,450 entries paid up for the 2001 NCHA World Championship Futurity speak to the important role the Western lifestyle plays in the lives of NCHA members. Cutting is more than a hobby -- it is a business and a way of life.

The 40^th annual Futurity will pay out $2,767,734 through the course of 20 days, November 27 - December 16, 2001 at the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas. It will be the very first showing of these three-year-old cutting horses, and the stakes are high. With $2.76 million up for grabs, competition will be fierce and the action will be spectacular.

The show and its accompanying activities will run for 20 days, culminating on December 16 with the Open Futurity Finals. In addition to world-class cutting, the NCHA also hosts the Cowboy Christmas Extravaganza trade and gift show, nine cutting horse sales, a Cowboy Santa, and a celebrity cutting.

For more information about the National Cutting Horse Association, the 40^th Annual NCHA World Championship Futurity, or the long list of activities that accompany the 20-day show, please call the NCHA at 817-244-6188 or visit www.nchacutting.com.