At the 2022 Winter Meetings, the National Reining Horse Association approved a proposal from the Aged Event Committee to modify the number of Semi-Finals qualifiers for the NRHA Futurity, which will be held Nov. 24–Dec. 3 at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City.
The Aged Event Committee felt that the current method of taking 75 qualifiers from each division created an imbalance in the percentage of entries advancing to the Semi-Finals. Chairman Mandy McCutcheon explained, “We did it both for the schedule, and because it was weighted so much in the Level 1.”
The 2021 NRHA Futurity numbers illustrate the disparity with 75 from each division qualifying for the Semi-Finals.
| Level | Number of Entries | Number to Semis | Percentage of entries going to Semis | Score to go to Semis |
| 4 | 396 | 75 | 19% | 217.5 |
| 3 | 313 | 75 | 24% | 214 |
| 2 | 239 | 75 | 31% | 210 |
| 1 | 126 | 75 | 60% | 200.5 |
It’s easy to see by looking at the chart that 60 percent of the Level 1 entries advanced to the Semi-Finals, but only 19 percent of the Level 4 qualified. After much consideration, the Committee, and subsequently the NRHA Board, agreed that setting a uniform percentage of entries in each level to come back to the Semi-Finals would make the process more evenly balanced.
The final decision was that the fairest approach would be to combine the percentage with a minimum and maximum cap on the number of qualifiers from each division. McCutcheon continued, “It was felt that this would balance the levels to bring back a more uniform percentage, with Level 1 still potentially bringing back a slightly higher percentage if it hit the minimum cap.”
The clarified condition will now read that the Semi-Finals qualifiers will be those with the top 30 percent of the first go scores in each division. However, no more than 75 entries in each division will advance. In the case where there are fewer than 50 qualifiers in the top 30 percent in a division, then 50 will advance.
The new system will go into effect for the 2022 NRHA Futurity.
A related modification was also made for the Honorable Mention Futurity class, which will now be for open riders only. This class will be limited to the first 35 entries.
For more information regarding the 2022 NRHA Futurity and Adequan® North American Affiliate Championships, visit NRHAFuturity.com.