Heel Horses of Cheyenne Frontier Days 2026

The 12 heel horses in this year’s Cheyenne Frontier Days field back into the box for Championship Sunday, July 26, 2026.

• There are 9 years between the oldest and youngest heel horses in the field. Coley Nicholls‘ Smart Smokin Playboy, born in 2010, is the oldest at 16; Blaine Vick’s PR Twisted Budha, born in 2019, is the youngest at 7.
• The average age across the 10 heel horses with a birth year on file is 11.
• Two heel horses in this field trace to the same elite cutting-horse sire line: Hunter Koch‘s Heavenly Catt is out of a Dual Rey mare, and Nicky Northcott‘s Sofisticatto is out of a Dual Pep mare — Dual Pep being Dual Rey’s own sire. Between the two stallions, their offspring have earned a combined $60-plus million in the cutting pen.
• Cory Petska‘s MP Dineros Woodpatch shares a sire with a horse on the heading list: PC Frenchmans Hayday, the NFR-qualifying barrel racing and team roping stallion, bloodlines from the breeding program developed by his wife, Sherri Cervi and her family.
• Ross Ashford rides the only grade horse in the field, whom he calls John Wayne.

* Pedigree not yet cross-verified against AQHA records, or horse name/pedigree not yet supplied.