The Money Barrel: Joy Wargo on the $65,000 No-Sale That Made Her a Trainer

Joy Wargo wanted $7,500 for the colt she called Smoke. He brought $65,000 at the BFA sale, and she no-saled him. She sold him after his futurity year, got him back a year and a half later and he kept winning.

He’s the reason I train horses.-Wargo on Smoke, registered Smokin Koa Lena. She said he kept winning, people kept seeing her name in the win column and they started sending her horses.

Wargo has since won the Breeders Challenge Futurity and the Colorado Classic on Chasin Tres Cans, the horse she calls Chase. She joined Kayla Jones on The Money Barrel to talk about the program behind it, which she calls very simple.

Joy Wargo on building a horse you can win on

Wargo said she was not born with timing and feel and was not a great jockey when she started. She needed horses that would do their job at speed even when she could not help them, and that is still how she trains. The horses she rode went on to win with their next jockeys, and she said most of them are still winning years later.

I think that’s kind of where my niche started was I’m really good at building a horse you can win on.-Wargo, on why her horses keep winning for the next rider.

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Why barrel horses have to love their job

The biggest part of training one, Wargo said, is not picking a fight on the pattern. A fight there creates hot spots and anxiety. If a horse will not rate, she takes it away from the barrels and fixes it with dry work, and she keeps her own routine so plain she jokes the horses must hate her for it.

Ten years ago maybe you could win on a horse that you made do it. You can’t win on a horse that you make do it now. They have to love their job to win now. It’s too tough. There’s too many good horses.

When to geld a futurity stallion

Chase won the Colorado Classic as a stud. Wargo pushed his owner, Sarah Pauels, to geld him. Pauels wants to take him to rodeos after his derby years, and Wargo said a stud ridden three days a week would not be fun to haul, while getting a new stallion into the incentives now is close to impossible. After the gelding, she said, he got more consistent and more locked on.

He was a great horse before. He is a freaking phenomenal horse now.Wargo on Chase. She called gelding him the best decision Pauels has made.

Believing in the horse under you

Behind the alley before the Breeders Challenge final, Wargo’s husband, Trent, had one thing to say. She said it was exactly what she needed to hear.

I don’t want there to be any doubt in your mind you’re riding the best horse here.-Trent Wargo, as Joy Wargo remembers it, right after she cinched up.-

Inside the episode

• How the Breeders Challenge week went, from the open to the final
• The Breeders Challenge check and the patio furniture
• The September 2024 video where she called Chase a winner on his third time on the pattern
• LaTricia Duke, the call that took six months and Smoke’s first big check
• Her first futurity horse, a reining reject bought for her dad’s ranch
• Her pattern work on Chase and the four-corner drill from Ashley Schafer
• Overnight trips and exhibitions before a colt ever pays an entry fee
• Holding a colt over and keeping it fit off the barrels

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