Sweet Victory: RBS Sugar Rush and Russell Dilday Claim 2026 AQHA World Show Junior Working Cow Horse Title

Russell Dilday knew it would take a big run to win the Level 3 Junior Working Cow Horse at the 2026 AQHA World Championship Show Nov. 1 in Oklahoma City. He rode RBS Sugar Rush (Kit Kat Sugar x Isabellena), a 2021 gelding owned by William McElligott Sr. of Lafayette, Louisiana. The Wynnewood, Oklahoma, horseman scored a 439.5 to claim the world title and $8,690.40.

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A Fast Trip Down the Fence

“We had a pretty good cow,” Dilday said. “I knew that we were going to have to be pretty big to win that class because there were a lot of heavy hitters in there. I felt really good heading down the fence and it got really fast. I was starting to wonder if maybe I’d gone a bit early, but Sugar just killed the first turn, came out in the middle, and the second turn I think was even harder because he was kind of pushed out there.”

The win didn’t sink in right away. The placings were announced from the bottom up, so Dilday had to wait out the countdown to learn where he and the gelding landed.

“Got in the top 10, was pretty happy,” Dilday said. “Then we wound up in the top five and I thought, ‘Holy cow, I can’t believe this. This is unbelievable.’”

In the end it came down to Dilday, Sterling Slemp and Clinton Anderson. Dilday hadn’t seen all of Slemp’s run and had caught only part of Anderson’s, but he knew both were good.

“I did not expect to be first,” Dilday said. “It just seems like I always fail to get way up there on ‘Sugar Rush,’ but that was his day. It was the best he’s been.”

Slemp and SPF Last Call (Dun It For Whizkey x Miss Magnum Dream) were called for second with a 438.5, just a point behind. Anderson and Takin No Prisoners (Stevie Rey Von x Little Pepto Gal) matched that score and placed third. Dilday was right behind them, placing fourth with a 436 on Razor Scooter (High Brow Cat x Scooters Daisy Dukes), a 2021 stallion he owns with his wife, Tanna.

From the Sale to the Show Pen

Dilday first spotted the gelding as a 2-year-old at a sale, where he was buying on behalf of Taylor Gillespie. He liked the horse’s looks and bought him for McElligott, and Gillespie put a lot of early work into the gelding. When Gillespie started working more with War Horses for Veterans, Sugar Rush moved to Dilday’s barn for training.

2025 War Horse Challenge Honors Veterans at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity

“He’s a little bit excitable and he would kind of attack things for a while,” Dilday said. “So it’s taken us a little bit to get together in the reining. I think there’s so much horse there. It’s just unbelievable. He has so much physical ability. All I had to do was get together with his mind, and I’m hoping that he just becomes a superior bridle horse down the road.”

The world title caps a big 2026 for Dilday. Earlier this year, he and Razor Scooter won the NRCHA Open Hackamore World Championship. In October, they took the Open Hackamore at the 2026 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity. This time, he was quick to give Sugar Rush the credit.

“We’ve been hammering away at it trying to win and it’s been getting better and better,” Dilday said. “It’s been three years of going at it and to get a big win like that is pretty gratifying. … He made an old guy look good.

L3 Junior Working Cow Horse

2026 AQHA World Championship Show