The Challenge of the Champions pits each division’s top-five season money-earners against each other in a round robin format that rotates partners run after run. Vardas went in with one rule.
“In every round robin, a time is a time,” Vardas said. “If you get a no time, it’s really hard to get back up there. Smooth and fast, but not slow, that was the plan with every partner.”
In total, she sorted 37 head, the most of anyone across all the Challenge of the Champions divisions.
Real Star Power
Vardas got her mare, Maren Morris (Catty Hawk x Wheres Yer Daddy), a 2018 sorrel, from Kevin Reese two years ago, when he decided she needed a better horse to match her riding.
“He was like, ‘Look, you can do this; now we got to get you some legs,’” Vardas said. “He told me to go get this horse in the back of the stalls. ‘She ain’t been rode in a week, but we got top 10 runs with you, so get on and let’s go.’”
Known around the barn as “Fatty Patty” before Vardas renamed her “Raven,” the mare has taken her to the winner’s circle every time she’s climbed on since. Raven carries $15,000 in cutting earnings of her own and more than $80,000 in sorting earnings with Vardas.
“It’s kind of convenient,” Vardas said, referencing the horse being named after the famous music artist. “Because she’s a pop star. She knows she is.”
A Goal Realized
This was Vardas’ first year qualifying for the Challenge of the Champions, and it had been the only thing on her mind.
“I actually have a Facebook post that popped back up the day we got here that said my only goal next year is to be in the Challenge of the Champions,” Vardas said.
Her run towards the Challenge of the Champions started snowballing in December 2025, right before the Texas state finals. Two weeks before the Cinch RSNC South Central Regional Super Sort in Waco, Texas, in May 2026, she checked the standings and saw she was $6,000 from the top five.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to go for it,’” Vardas said. “We went in and got $12,000 in Waco. I was like, ‘All right, here we go.’”
At that Super Sort, riding a borrowed horse named “Ziggy” alongside partner Steve Cawthon, Vardas won the Professional’s Choice #9 Gold Shootout for $11,254, the biggest single-class payout of the event. The win vaulted her to No. 2 in the Amateur standings with $35,584 in season earnings, clinching her Challenge of the Champions spot.
She credited coaches Tommy Roberson, Kevin Reese and Tim Field for helping her accomplish this goal.
“I have a lot of big people in my corner,” Vardas said. “They’ve really helped me come all the way up here.”
Vardas’ other accomplishments throughout the week included a ninth-place finish in the #14 Ranch Hand and capturing two checks for her second- and fourth-place finishes in the #18 3-Rider 2-Gate class, bringing her World Finals earnings to $4,230 including the $1,000 Cinch Bonus Money check for seizing the Holiday Auto Group Challenge of the Champions Amateur title.
From The Ranch Sorter
Summer 2026 Issue
This article appears in the Summer 2026 issue of The Ranch Sorter.
