|
|
|
|
|
O'Neil 'showed to win'
By Chris Gay
Staff Writer
Entering a workoff for the $50,000 Amateur 5/6-Year-Old title Sunday, Jim O'Neil kept his strategy simple.
|
|
Jim O'Neil of Orlean, Va., rides Love A Little Devil to the $50,000 Amateur 5/6 Year Old title. O'Neil defeated Glen Matlock in a workoff Sunday after tying in the finals with 217.5 marks. O'Neil had a 219 in the workoff.
JEFF BARNES/STAFF
|
"I just knew from my old coaches, Bill Riddle and Tracy Barton, to go for broke," he said. "All I can do is get no worse than second. So I showed to win. I didn't show to lose."
O'Neil posted a 219 on Love A Little Devil in the workoff and picked up his first Augusta Futurity victory by defeating Glen Matlock, who scored a 129.
O'Neil, a veterinarian from Orlean, Va., won $4,884 and Matlock, riding Instant Jazz 297, took the second-place check of $3,663.
The two cutters tied atop the leaderboard at 217.5 after their set of 12 horses were finished. Matlock won the coin flip and elected to ride second in the workoff, a playoff where cutters have one run to try and mark higher than the other cutter. After O'Neil's strong run, Matlock was informed of the situation.
"There was a lot of pressure when I heard the guy marked a 219," Matlock said. "We had to let it all hang out, and we tried to. It just didn't work."
O'Neil rode his 5-year-old stud, by Smart Little Lena out of Lovely Freckles, for the first time in Augusta. The horse is the brother to three other horses O'Neil has taken to the finals in the Augusta Futurity.
"We know he's a top-caliber horse," O'Neil said. "He has all the potential in the world. His only limitations are probably myself."
O'Neil has shown cutting horses for about five years. He said he has ridden reining horses "for years" and continues to do so.
O'Neil was at the Augusta Futurity in 1999 and 2000, but skipped last year to give his horse a rest after participating in the World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.
In 2001, Matlock finished third in the $50,000 Amateur 4-Year-Old finals. After riding second in the 5/6-Year-Old finals this year, he said he didn't feel his score was good enough to win.
"I didn't, because Barbara (Brooks) marked a 218 (.5) (in the go-round) and the other horse that won (the go-round) marked a pretty good score (219)," he said. "But I was proud of it."
|
|
|
|
