The joy of winning a title at the Augusta Futurity helped alleviate the pressure of cutting for Cyndi Goodwin, who feels that her hobby is more stressful than her job.

That's saying a lot for the Weatherford, Texas, resident, who has worked 25 years for the Fort Worth Police Department and as a patrol sergeant, supervises 15 officers on the department's midnight shift.

On Jan. 24, 2004, Goodwin rang up a 218 on TJ Gin Oak to capture the $50,000 Amateur Any Age, winning by one point over Rick French, Lexington, Tenn., riding Pistol Sin. She earned $5,050, while French picked up $4,000.

Goodwin, 50, who has a bachelor's degree in criminology and a master's degree in accounting from the University of Texas- Arlington, said her family didn't own horses but she rode rental horses from about age 6 to age 12.

About 10 years ago, she decided to take some riding lessons and one of the instructors had what she said was a really bad cutting horse.

"But it was enough to get me hooked," she said. "I've been doing (police work) so long, I don't think about it. This is still new to me. This is a lot of stress."

TJ Gin Oak (DNA), a 1998 gelding by Tachitas Jewels out of Gin Oak by Doc's Oak, was purchased from the breeder, 1990 Augusta Futurity Non-Pro Champion Skip Hobbs, at a sale during the NCHA Super Stakes several years ago.

"Tim McCloud had trained this horse and I bought him for Tim to show," she said. "I had never shown him, but I had loped him for Tim for his 3- and early 4-year-old years, so I knew him real well."

Although they had lost a cow in the $20,000 Non-Pro earlier in the day, Goodwin said the run let her know that her gelding was well prepared and doing his job.

"My horse really takes care of me," she said. "That last cow I got, he just finished him off nicely."