It’s hard to keep up with all the horse show happenings in a year. Over almost 40 years it’s almost impossible. Here are a few tidbits about the Three Year Old Futurity that might interest you, as we get ready to watch the 2017 Championships unfold this week.
List of 1980 Three Year Old Futurity Entries
- The first Futurity was held June 13 -14, 1980 and had 17 entries. The show was held at the MFTHBA show grounds in Ava, MO.
- The Futurity was formed after a group of avid performance horse participants recognized the need for a championship to honor the outstanding 3-year- old horses in the same way that the Mid-America Two Year Old Futurity was recognizing the great 2 year old of the time. The bylaws were originally modeled after the Mid-America show and incorporated under the MFTHBA umbrella.
- Tom Owen, JoAnn Alford, Wayne Jones, Darrell Caswell, Warren Gamble, Gene Donnelly and Jerry Middleton were some of the names included in the committee that organized the first Futurity.
- The first Futurity paid out $4,640.00.
- The first champion crowned in 1980 was Lad’s Special Promise. Owned by JoAnn and Jan Alford of Buffalo and shown by Jan Alford. Tom Owen recalls that, “Jan had a good mare at the Futurity. It really set the tone for a lot of great years.” Reserve Champion was Bee Mack’s Delight, owned by Bob King and shown by Quentin Middleton.
- The Amateur Open division was added to the Futurity in 1992. And, Amateur Owned and Trained in 1996. The first Amateur Champion was Miss Zane’s Blue Moon, owned and ridden by Jack Van Ness of Rogersville.
- Trainer Steve Dampier of Eldridge, MO holds the record for the most Futurity wins with an amazing 8 Championships and also leads in Reserve Championships with 6. Steve won his first Championship in 1983 on Sweet Polly G, owned by Carl Potter and his last in 2010 on Downtown Sassy Brown, owned by Beth Tripp.
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