Kenny Platt's Double at Fort Worth and What It Means for Horse of the Year

If you were watching the NCHA Summer Spectacular Open pen on July 13–19, you saw something worth paying attention to: Kenny Platt won both the Classic Challenge Open on LBR Hangem with a 226 and the Derby Open on Get Um Talkin with a 224 — on the same day. That doesn't happen by accident.

LBR Hangem is the one I keep coming back to. That 226 pushed the Dual Reyish stallion past $573,910 lifetime, and when you fold in the side pots, the week paid $77,955 on a single horse. Platt said publicly this was LBR Hangem's last Fort Worth appearance as a 6-year-old, and the implication is clear — he's building toward NCHA Open Horse of the Year, with the West Texas Futurity and Run for a Million still on deck.

Get Um Talkin is no afterthought either. That gelding is now at $158,105 lifetime, with a 225 in the semis before the 224 final score. Two horses, two checks, one trainer, one afternoon.

Here's the honest question worth arguing about at your next show: if Platt locks up Horse of the Year on LBR Hangem, does that syndicated stallion's book get out of reach for the mid-level cutting program? Because that conversation is coming.

#NCHA #cuttinghorse