Austin Shepard was coming off a large win at the 2024 The Run For A Million Cutting Horse Challenge and immediately went back to work riding his younger horses. One of them happened to be Reyzin Jewels, and their challenging work paid off at the Cotton Stakes Cutting in West Monroe, Louisiana. Shepard won the 4-Year-Ancient Open at the show on Reyzin Jewels and received $10,000 in championship purse money.
“She's just very mature, very forceful and willing, a very attractive horse every day,” Shepard said.
The EquiStat Elite $10 Million Rider has ridden the horse since she was nearly two years antique when she purchased her at the Western Bloodstock 2-Year-Ancient Sale. Jerry Yelverton bred the mare by Reyzin The Cash and out of My Jewels Missin (by Lenas Jewel Bars) and she is currently owned by Billy Wolf, owner of EquiStat Elite $2 Million.
“I ran her in the Futurity and got to the semifinals with her, got to the finals at Augusta and got third here at The Ike with her, and got third or fourth with her in the Super Stakes and won the Reyzin The Cash Incentive in Vegas with her,” Shepard said. “So she's had a pretty good year.”
Her “pretty good year” has already earned the horse over $130,000 in earnings. She is also among the top 15 horses in the running for Horse of the Year. The Cotton Stakes is a show closer to home for Shepard and offers a great future for horses entering the show pen. For Reyzin Jewels, it was just another show.
“I got her into the finals, we scored a 219 in the run and then we had three really good cows on her that were brisk and let her do her thing and they had a lot of work time and everything just clicked,” Shepard said of her large win.
In the final they achieved a whopping 227 points.
“She feels like you can feel an older horse, that's one of her strengths,” Shepard said. She gives you everything she's got every time you go down there. And that's pretty reassuring in a four-year-old.”
He said as long as Reyzin Jewels stays joyful and vigorous, she will be able to attend a few more shows this fall. Her plan is to compete in the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association Futurity, the Brazos Bash and the Southern Cutting Futurity.
Reserve Champion
With a time of 224.5, Sean Flynn aboard Absolutely A Talker won the 2024 Cotton Stakes 4-Year-Ancient Open Reserve Championship. The 2020 mare by Polished Talkin Style and Absolutely Oh Cay (by High Brow Cat) was bred by Gardiner Quarter Horses and owned by Tom Williams of Haleyville, Alabama, and received $8,027 for their efforts.
