Jim Vangilder, riding Guys Little Jewel, leads after the second round of the Futurity Non-Pro Division with a score of 434. Steve Norman

Jim Vangilder is starting to make Augusta his home away from home.

The Weatherford, Texas, resident won Augusta Futurity titles the past two years, took home a Western Horseman Cup crown Friday, and he'll be bidding for another championship tonight.

Riding Guys Little Jewel, Vangilder marked 218 earlier Friday in the Futurity Non-Pro second go-round.

He enters tonight's finals, which follow the opening ceremonies at 5:30, with the top combined total of 434.

Twenty horses advanced with aggregate scores of 422 to the finals, where they all start even.

Vangilder, who also qualified Pet Squirrel for the finals with a combined total of 425, was one of two contestants who advanced two horses. Beau Galyean matched Vangilder with Sweeties Wild Child and Shesa Lil Moonlight as both horses recorded aggregate scores of 426.

Vangilder will try to defend his 2005 Futurity Non-Pro title, which he won with Freckles Royally Doc despite riding last in the competition. In 2004, he and Zacks Lena marked 227 to win the Classic Non-Pro.

"I came back last year with no great expectations," he said. "To win it once is a thrill for me. ... I guess the moon and stars were aligned and it happened again."

Vangilder, who is retired from the manufacturing business, started cutting in 2001. In five years he's made up ground on his fellow competitors. At Augusta alone, he's made a meteoric rise to 38th in the all-time earnings list.

"I'm still not where I want to be," Vangilder said. "I feel I'm better than I was a year ago and not as good, hopefully, as I will be a year from now."

One of the reasons Vangilder has been successful is his horses. Guys Little Jewel and Pet Squirrel will make appearances in both the Non-Pro finals and Futurity Open finals tonight.
Vangilder bought Guys Little Jewel, by Dualin Jewels out of Smart Little Leona, as a yearling. Vangilder purchase the horse on the advice of trainer Roger Wagner.

"He just liked the way she was built, the way she looked," Vangilder said.

Vangilder, 59, never had any luck with Guys Little Jewel before Friday. He finally made his first finals with the horse.

"That's probably the best run I've had on her," he said. "She's obviously a very good horse. I've shown her a couple of times, but I haven't really been able to get her shown well enough. I've had some good runs, but either gotten run over in the second go or whatever."

Vangilder knows the odds are against him for winning a third consecutive Augusta title.

"There's so many variables. Roger's told me several times there's only three or four cows in a herd that are really winning cows," he said. "It's whoever gets there first and gets those cows and who happens to have that horse on that particular night."

Reach Chris Gay at (706) 823-3645 or chris.gay@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Saturday, January 28, 2006 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle