Page Bowman, of Simpsonville, Ky., closed out the NCHA Eastern National Championships presented by 6666 Ranch in Jackson, Miss. on Saturday, March 13 with a 220-point win in the Non-Pro on Big Daddys CD LTE $175,070.
Missy Jean Etheridge, of Corinth, Miss., claimed the reserve championship with 217.5 on A Cat Named Johnny LTE $65,968. Julie Beasley, of Montgomery, Ala., placed third with a 217 on CR Dualin Out Tuff LTE $111,243.
Bowman, who has NCHA earnings of $697,419, won her first Eastern Nationals title ten years ago, when she rode Snazzy Easter Bunny LTE $165,367 in the Junior Youth. She followed that with a $5,000 Novice Non-Pro win in 2015 on Athena Mad Man LTE $120,168, and in the $25,000 Novice Non-Pro in 2017 on Tom E Boy LTE $149,028.
Big Daddys CD is an 11-year-old gelding bred by Page’s parents, Mike and Libby Bowman, by High Brow CD out of Snazzy Easter Bunny. Page had previously won Non-Pro championships on Big Daddys CD at the NCHA Derby and Augusta Classic. Austin Shepard showed him to a reserve championship in the Open at the Augusta Futurity.
Page Bowman has won four major championships at Augusta, as well as wins at the Cotton Stakes, Tunica Futurity, Southern Classic and NCHA World Finals.
Missy Etheridge, the NCHA earner of $514,772, got her second reserve championship of the show in the Non-Pro, following her second-place on Deputy Droopy in the $5,000 Novice Non-Pro. In addition this year, she placed fourth in the Non-Pro on Boondexterous, and was a $25,000 Novice Non-Pro finalist on A Cat Named Johnny.
A Cat Named Johnny LTE $65,968 is a six-year-old gelding bred by Jon Cates by Metallic Cat out of Olenas CD Dually, by CD Olena.
Julie Beasley, the NCHA earner of $301,241, was reserve champion of the $25,000 Novice Non-Pro on CR Dualin Out Tuff at this year’s Eastern Nationals. She first showed the Woody Be Tuff mare, to place ninth in the 2018 NCHA Non-Pro Futurity. In 2019, the pair won the Breeders Invitational Amateur Unlimited, the Ike Hamilton Futurity 4-Year-Old Amateur, and the Cotton Stakes 4-Year-Old Amateur.
Austin Shepard, who had been showing CR Dualin Out Tuff as an Open limited age event finalist for Beasley, won the 2020 NCHA Eastern Nationals $5,000 Novice on her and came back this year, on Monday, March 8, to win the Open championship with 223 points.
Bred by Center Ranch, CR Dualin Out Tuff is out of the Dual Pep daughter ARC Catty Dual LTE $168,762, the dam of earners of $647,481.
To read more from Sally Harrison, visit her blog at sallyharrison.com.
