Rhen Richard won the 6-&-under heading at the 2026 Old West Futurity in Heber City, Utah, and an $80,000 first-place check on Sammis Big Gal, a mare he’d been calling his secret weapon since before anyone else believed in her.

“Nobody really liked her when we started her,” Richard said. “We started her late. She was kind of shocky. But she just had a really cool way of moving for what I like in a head horse. She fits me. She’s super up and driving on her butt, fast-footed. She’s got that race-horse run, but she’s not ever running through your hand. I swing aggressive and she fits that style.”

With go-round money added, Sammis Big Gal finished the week at $84,000, the No. 2 earner of the entire futurity behind only DT Hickorys Evita’s $88,000. She is by Cc Brooks Big Boy out of Sammi James Smith, owned by A&C Racing And Roping and bred by Chad Richard, and she won the championship with a 909 total.

For Richard, the mare is a bottom-side bet that paid off. Sammi James Smith is by Jesse James Jr. over a Treis Seis line, and Richard said it was the bottom of the pedigree—race-bred, with real black type—that sold him on the cross.

“I’d be lying if I told you exactly what black type the grandma has on the bottom,” Richard said, “but she’s a big-time race-horse mare and she’s produced in multiple disciplines.”

Sammis Big Gal was the first foal he roped on out of the mare. He has two full siblings coming, a weanling on the ground and a 3-year-old.

That cross is also Richard’s thesis on what keeps a head horse sound and willing deep into its career.

“The magic cross in the future is going to be a quarter cow, three-quarter runner,” Richard said. “When you breed too much cow into them, they get cowy—they want to rate. The horses with the run on top, mentally they feel more like the race horse. The best horses ever made, whether you go back to your Scooters or those kind, had a lot of run.”

Richard didn’t just win the heading. He won the week. His $186,488 on five head—Sammis Big Gal, the sale graduate Reys Version, Winners Fire, Watch The Lane and Little Foose Sug—cleared the next-closest roper by roughly $75,000, and he did it while producing the event and helping set its short-round cattle.

Futurity Heading — Full Results

2026 Old West Futurity, Heber City, Utah. Average (aggregate) standings by division, plus go-rounds. Divisions are nested; a horse may appear in more than one. Full-week total = average money + go-round money.

Open (average)

Intermediate (average)

Limited (average)

Go-rounds

• Round 1: One Time Pick $4,000 · One Big Sugar High $2,000
• Round 2: Sammis Big Gal $4,000 · Watch The Lane $2,000