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Rice, Squeaky Clean survive
tough cow to reach Open final
By Alisa DeMao
Staff Writer
Ronnie Rice had numerous reasons to be thankful on Tuesday.
He was thankful to survive his run. He was thankful for his help. He is thankful for a few days off.
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Squeaky Clean, ridden by Ronnie Rice, cuts off a cow during second go-round
competition Tuesday in the Augusta Futurity's Classic Open. Squeaky Clean
marked an aggregate 443 to lead the field into Friday night's finals.
STEVE NORMAN/SPECIAL
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The Buffalo, Texas, native marked a score of 221 on Squeaky Clean in the second go-round of the Classic Open. Combined with their score of 222 in the first go-round, Rice and his 5-year-old stallion had the top aggregate score (443) of the event.
"I cut a pretty tough cow and I'm just lucky to survive it, to tell the truth" Rice said. "I had some awful good help getting me off that calf. That's what survived me, my help survived me."
The top 21 horses advanced to Friday night's finals with aggregate scores of 436.5 or better. That was the highest cutline of the Classic Open's second go-round since the inception of the event in 1985. The previous record was 434.5 in 1993.
The slate will be wiped clean and the horses and their riders start even in the finals.
Rice cut his first cow cleanly, but soon ran into trouble with a rough second cow. The second cow dashed to Rice's right and Rice nearly lost it, which would have resulted in him not making the finals. But helper Faron Hightower rushed to keep the cow from getting back to the herd of cattle.
"Had I not gone down there, there was a possibility that he might still have survived it," Hightower said. "But you don't have but a millisecond to make a decision. My job was to try and help him. And from what I saw she had made her decision to try and get away."
Rice wasn't trying to make the go-round difficult on himself. He had some leeway with the scoring and just needed to cut clean to advance to the finals.
"I was just going to try and cut what was going to stay away from me," he said. "That (second) cow started out good, but when she gave it up she decided she was just going to get by me. I didn't aim to cut one near that bad. I just wanted to cut soft."
Rice now has three days to prepare for the finals.
"That horse (Squeaky Clean) gets upset and pretty wild, and I'll just have to slow him back down," Rice said. "I'm glad I've got a couple of days to back him off and let him relax."
Hightower, the 2001 Classic Open champion, advanced one of his two horses to the finals. On Instant Chex, Hightower scored a second straight 219 for a 438 total.
Later, Hightower and Bingo On The River rode to a 216.5 for an aggregate 434.5, missing the cut by two points.
"Any time you get there you have a chance to win," Hightower said. "I'd like for him to be in a little better shape than what he is right now. But the horse has got a lot of crowd appeal. Possibly, we'll have a good crowd here and let them kind of get involved which may help sway the judges a little bit. He's a pretty horse and real honest. I just need a couple of more weeks to really get him in shape."
First go-round co-leader Randy Butler marked a 218 on Playin Wild for an aggregate 440. Butler took the aggregate lead on the fourth run of the 63-horse set, but was overtaken by Rice who rode 44th.
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