The 2021 6666 National Reining Horse Association Derby presented by Markel was a tremendous success by all measurements. The highest payout, plus the largest number of entries and stalls, resulted in a record-breaking mega-event.

It also created real challenges in getting so many horses shown in the allotted time. NRHA Events Manager Cheryl Cody explained, “Our entries grew amazingly. We went from 249 Non Pro entries in the previous year to 302 in 2021. The Open division increased from 247 to 274. In the four days allotted for the Open and Non Pro prelims, we had 80 more entries than in 2020. That was over a 16 percent increase with 576 horses to get shown.”

She continued, “Our officials and staff were faced with more than 150 runs per day in the Non Pro prelims and nearly 140 a day in the Open. Plus, the situation in the Adequan Arena was equally challenging, with comparable growth, so we knew we had to make changes.”

Cody and NRHA Commissioner Gary Carpenter met with the Oklahoma State Fair officials, Bill Allen, Vice President, Jim Norick Arena & Equine Facilities; Jonathan Fisher, Director of Jim Norick Arena and Equine Facilities; and incoming Oklahoma State Fair Executive Vice President Kirk Slaughter to work on the problem. Through those meetings, they were able to add two days to the Derby preliminaries and three days to the Adequan Arena classes.

Horses will now be allowed to move into the Derby at noon on Tuesday, June 14, and classes will begin on Wednesday, June 15, in the Adequan Arena with the first section of the American Quarter Horse Association and American Paint Horse Association classes. The show will continue through June 26.

The preliminaries of the Non Pro Derby will begin on Friday, June 17, and go through Sunday, June 19. The next day signals the start of three days of Open preliminaries.

Carpenter noted, “As our growth continues to amaze us in a positive sense, it also creates scheduling challenges. The State Fair staff and leadership have gone out of their way to be innovative in helping us through these record-setting shows.”

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.

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.