Nancy Adkins' Slick Lane Ta Fame & Will Lear Earn $72,516 Pink Buckle
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
OCTOBER 15, 2019 -- Volume 13: Issue 40 IN THIS ISSUE: • Pink Buckle Futurity, Guthrie, OK • Pink Buckle Open 4D, Guthrie, OK, pg 33 • CTBRA Finals, Llano, TX, pg 46 • AMQ #18 - Statesboro, GA, pg 45 • Jeanine McMinn Memorial, Conroe, TX, pg 47 • Pro Rodeos, pg 50 • Pink Buckle Horse Sale, Guthrie, OK, pg 57 Published Weekly, online at www.BarrelRacingReport.com - Since 2007 Nancy Adkins’ Slick Lane Ta Fame & Will Lear Earn $72,516 Pink Buckle Futurity Championship By Tanya Randall $72,516 is life-changing money, but Slick Lane Ta Fame’s Pink On The Money Red Buckle Futurity Championship went beyond the money for the Designer Red SI 103 4-year-old mare’s jockey Will Lear and her owner Nancy Adkins. SI 87 Pin A Rose On Me Their share of the $650,000 Futurity purse was $72,516, while Slick By Design Charlie Cole and Jason Martin of Highpoint Barrel Horses received $8,532 on behalf of their stallion Slick By Design and Mike and Dream On Dancer Dreams Of Blue SI 90 Jill Petty earned $4,266 as the breeders of Beyoncé for a total of $85,354 in earnings. Ms Sun Pass For Lear, who was returning to futurity competition after an eight year hiatus, the championship put him back in the limelight as Slick Lane Ta Fame an elite rider enabling him to grow his training business. 2015 Black Filly “It’s just crazy!” exclaimed Lear. “It’s just unbelievable. This is First Down Dash what you do it for your whole life. That’s what you work for and Dash Ta Fame SI 105 wins like that don’t come every day. I’ve been doing it for a long SI 113 Sudden Fame time and never won anything like that. It’s life changing almost.” SI 98 For Adkins, a longtime futurity player and former event producer, Short Lane Ta Fame the championship was a very sentimental one, as Slick Lane Ta Lanes Leinster Fame was the last horse her father, Lyman Gates, had picked out Short Lanes Wink SI 101 before his passing a little over a year ago. Strawberry Shortwink “This horse is very sentimental to me,” said Adkins, who pro- duced the Turn N Burn Classic Futurity for 10 years, starting in Rider: Will Lear; Owner: Nancy Adkins; Breeder: Mike or Jill Petty 1997. “He was a heck of a horseman. He had an eye for a horse. Man, he could pick out a good horse. always liked to poke you in the arm—and asking me, ‘What’s she up “It was a very emotional win for me and I’m so happy for Will. to now? Do you think we ought to buy her?’ I said, ‘I’m not buying The word pride just doesn’t do justice for what I feel about doing any horses, Dad. I’ve got enough right now.’ Well, Sharin no saled business with this young man. It’s such an honor. It reminds me her. I thought she must really like her and she’s going to keep her why I started doing futurities. I like to see a young horse and a hun- for herself. I gave no more thought to it.” gry rider. He was hungry. He wanted it and worked at it.” About three months later, Adkins was back at the hospital to visit her dad and she just happened to be on the phone with Hall Slick Lane Ta Fame when she walked in his room. Bred by Mike and Jill Petty, Slick Lane Ta Fame (“Beyoncé”) is “Dad heard me talking to her and he immediately started grilling by multiple NFR qualifier and now leading sire Slick By Design. She about that horse,” she said. “She told me then she wanted to sell is out of the Dash Ta Fame, Lanes Leinster mare Short Lane Ta her. Dad pointed at me and said this is the start of our journey. I Fame. want you to buy that horse. He wanted to travel with me again to Adkins first saw the mare while watching the 2017 Triangle Bar- watch her compete.” rel Horse Classic Sale while waiting at hospital with her dad. Sharin A lifelong horseman, Lyman Gates made sure his daughter was Hall had the then 2-year-old mare consigned. indoctrinated at an early age. “My dad was sick and we were sitting in the ER waiting to get “My step-grandfather is who started this whole crazy notion,” she admitted to a room,” recalled Adkins. “I pulled up the sale and this chuckled remembering her youth at the Standardbred track. “From horse comes in with Sharin. I said, ‘Oh dad! This will be a nice one. 5-years-old on up, I was in horse heaven. I had to go to every race. I Sharin always has nice horses.’ He kept poking me—because he Pink Buckle Futurity Continued on Page 2 Pink Buckle Futurity Continued From Page 1 rode in the sulky with my dad. Then they crossed over into Thor- oughbred racing.” Adkins got her start through 4H, but her father made sure she THE RUNDOWN w/Will Lear had a diverse equine education. Slick Lane Ta Fame “Beyonce” 15 hands, 1,100 lbs. “I rode just about every genre there was—polo, English, Western pleasure, Paint horses, stock horses, was an outrider at the race- BIT: O-ring rope-nose combination with a twisted wire mouthpiece track,” she recalled. “I learned a lot from my father because he really SADDLE: Mike Green “I’ve got some Brett Monroe (Signature Series) that I’m pushed me and encouraged me to learn different things with the going to start using.” horses. When I learned to do barrel racing that was it. That was the SADDLE PAD: 5-Star thing I liked the most.” LEG GEAR: Classic Equine and RES Unfortunately, Gates passed away before Beyoncé made her first SHOEING: Aluminum on front, lite quarter rims on the back competition run, but Adkins said she knows he’s making this jour- FEED: Purina Strategy Healthy Edge ney with her. “I tried to keep it in check and let the business part of me kick HAY: Hay Rite Alfalfa Cubes in, but it’s hard when there is this kind of special connection,” she SUPPLEMENTS: MVP Exceed 6-Way, Gastro-Plex paste, In-Sync 4 said. “When she made that run with Sharin in Oklahoma City and ALTERNATIVES THERAPIES: “Nancy does lots of therapy on them. She takes them placed third in the (Super Stakes), I felt my dad’s presence with me home and gets them worked on.” Back On Track, Soft Rides, Magnet so much that day. I had his watch on my arm. It was just crazy. I blankets, Theraplate. could just feel him.” CONDITIONING-TRAINING REGIMEN: “Just exercise her. I very seldom show her a barrel. Her father had followed her passion for barrel horses, traveling Maybe once or twice before I go somewhere I’ll trot or lope through with with her to watch her horses run. Ironically, there first trip out west to watch her horses run at a futurity was at the Lazy E Arena. some big circles to remind her to stay out, but that’s it. She’s pretty easy.” “It just seemed unreal that she goes in there and wins at the SPONSORS: Med-Vet Pharmaceuticals arena we went to,” she mused. “To me it’s more special not just from Sharin to Will seemed like the right fit at the right time.” because of this aspect, but Will has worked so hard. We go to the Lear had the mare just a couple of days before heading to Texas shows nearby and I watch him work. I know how dedicated he is to for Diamonds & Dirt. They placed in both the futurity and slot race all his clients.” before returning east to win the Panty Raid Futurity. “She is just so gritty,” he said. “She never quits trying. Some Will Lear horses will quit you if you get out of position, with her it doesn’t A South Carolina native, Will Lear grew up riding with the best matter if you’re in the right position or not, she’s going to dig, claw, in the business and started competing in futurities when he was just try to get something done. I think that means a lot. No matter what, 14. His parents Tony and Lori got him started riding under Mike she’s going to try when she goes through there.” Green at Southern Rose Ranch. He later rode with Troy Crumrine Adkins admits it wasn’t a straight shot to success. During the and was around top futurity riders like Talmadge Green, Brett Mon- summer, they had a few poor showings at futurities because Be- roe and Cody Bauserman. yoncé was slipping. Adkins and Lear discussed some changes and “I learned a lot from them,” he said. “They taught me a lot how Beyoncé had a shoeing change and Lear made a bit change all to to win mentally. You can beat yourself a lot of times.” help stand her up more. Having trained horses since 1997, Lear decided to scale back after It all came together for them at Pink Buckle. getting married to his wife Amanda. The couple has three boys and all are very active with horses and sports. Pink Buckle “I took a break for about eight years,” he explained. “I didn’t re- Lear and Beyoncé turned in a 17.147 on the standard pattern in ally quit training and riding but I didn’t ride as many for the public.