male narrator: Previously on "The Last Cowboy"...
- We gotta step up the game a little bit.
- I'm feelin' the pressure too.
I understand the stakes.
both: How you doing? - Good.
- With this trip to Oregon,
I'm gonna take chances that I wouldn't normally take.
- We had a big storm. We had about inches of rain.
We had us some water runnin' in the arena
and about a third of it is flooded.
- There's a whole lot more to life
than what we do on the back of a horse.
- All right, Jason, you're a lot more dry than me.
- Helping each other out, that's the cowboy way of life.
- This is my first year as a professional.
- I'm really proud of Cade, but we wanna b*at each other.
- That was better.
- The hardest part recovering from the knee surgery
was not being able to horse show.
But I feel like I'm ready to go.
[groans]
* *
[birds singing]
[cattle moos]
[flies buzzing]
[rock music]
[cattle mooing]
* *
[cattle mooing]
* *
narrator: It's the first day
of the National Reining Breeder's Classic...
or NRBC.
Like Texas itself, everything here is bigger.
- Oh, yeah!
[horn blasts]
* *
- It's a big facility.
- They have six different arenas that we can ride in.
- I don't think you can b*at the size this arena.
- The ground is fast.
- You can really get a horse up and running.
- Wow, look how far forward he is.
- The crowd sits right on top of you.
[crowd screaming]
- The NRBC picks a tougher group of judges.
[crowd groans] - A little hop, skip,
and his night was all for naught.
- The NRBC is, like, a tailgating environment.
- All right, crawfish time!
- Everybody's having a good time, everybody's cooking out.
- What I eat before I ride.
- When they open the arena, just a swarm of people.
There could be - horses in there.
- It's, like, ants crawling through a picnic.
- Excuse me, sir, I'm trying to roll back here.
narrator: And for the top riders,
this show was the final chance
to see which of their horses has the right stuff
before they head to Vegas for The Run For A Million.
- Vegas is coming really, really soon.
You can feel the pressure mounting.
[slow steel guitar music]
* *
- C'mon, ride 'em, ride 'em, ride 'em, ride 'em.
narrator: The McCutcheons have brought
their six top reining horses to compete in the NRBC.
Cade is planning to show his star horse, Lacey...
but he has some concerns.
- Come on.
Did anybody watch that?
- Keep digging, Cade. - [bleep].
Lacey and I didn't have a great Cactus.
[rock music]
Come on!
- Looks like he bobbled there.
Got a little off-balance.
- Lacey is a great horse, she's super-talented,
she can do a lot of big maneuvers,
and I think she can be my horse
for the Run For A Million.
But as a four-year-old, Lacey's like a teenager.
It's hard at a young age to keep her really focused.
- You just gotta go with what you got at this point.
- The pressure's just building, you know?
They're getting closer and closer to labeling me a bust.
So I need to have a good NRBC.
- You scared? - Huh?
- Are you scared? - Yeah.
I don't have one maneuver that's not sketchy.
I mean, everything. - Welcome to my world.
[country music]
- I am just coming off a knee surgery--
or a knee replacement.
You know, I haven't been riding.
My horses aren't ready and I'm not ready.
Son of a bitch.
It's certainly not the best-case scenario
to go to the NRBC cold.
I know I can't make any mistakes.
[coughs]
A disappointing scenario for me
would be not making the final.
Anything less than that, it would destroy me.
- You got him? - What?
- You got him? - [bleep] if I know.
* What if I told you *
* You were one of a kind *
* Don't you hide away *
* From what you've been given *
[Itay Steinberg's "Individual Soul"]
* Don't fall deeper and deep into the hole *
* Give in to your soul *
- Good, huh?
- My goals for the NRBC are pretty simple:
To get all my horses to the finals and to win.
Whoa.
Some of the greatest horsemen in the world
are at this event this week.
Looks good, huh? - Really good.
- I think he's starting to get the feel of the ground.
- Yeah.
- And the list is - people deep
that could legitimately go in there
and put a run together
and actually win the horse show.
- Pretty good, huh?
- Yeah, but not where it needs to be.
The pressure for me is...
we actually just closed on a ranch up in Oklahoma
a couple of weeks ago
and it was a pretty big price tag for us.
And so, uh, the pressure to go there and win is huge.
Form and everything was good and he was locked in.
Like, his ear just wiggled left to right.
Yeah, we'll just keep working on that.
I think we'll be good.
Here.
[country music]
* *
- How's it goin' today? - It's goin' all right.
I heard from the guys in Oregon.
They're not gonna sell us the horse,
they changed their minds.
- That's bull[bleep].
[dramatic music]
- We went to Oregon to look at a horse to buy.
We knew the horse wasn't for sale,
but initially seemed like they were ready to sell...
but they thought about it some more
and they got cold feet and backed out.
- It's very, very frustrating.
We spent a sh*t ton of money gettin' up there,
we've got no horse comin' up to this million-dollar deal,
We're pourin' mass efforts into this.
This is gettin' to be ridiculous.
We were pushing to get that horse for Las Vegas.
Matt's kinda got egg on his face at this point.
I'm--I'm--now I'm pissed.
- I'll--I'll find a horse, trust me.
- [bleep] damn it,
the [bleep] timeline is gettin' real close here.
- Trust me, I know.
I'm the one that's gonna be riding him.
The Ruckmans are putting pressure on.
They wanna know what I'm gonna do next...
but I have a backup plan. [grunts]
At the horse show, a lot of times
people will bring horses that they are looking to sell.
- What's goin' on, Tommy?
- It's almost like a swap meet, you know?
The Ruckmans are not happy
and so gotta figure out something fast.
- Hey, you got anything really good for sale?
I need, like, a-- like, really good.
Something I could show.
I want--I need turnkey.
It's been a struggle to get to where I'm at now.
I mean, it's really hard out here.
I wouldn't even want to think about
having to get knocked back down the ladder
and trying to climb up again.
- Watch Cage show the little Gunners Special Nite.
It's a good horse.
- That one's for sale?
[dramatic music]
- He will probably be for sale.
- If I'm gonna win and-- and keep my job
I really need a better horse.
All right, thanks. - Not--not yet.
- All right. [chuckles]
[country music]
* *
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- To a good day.
NRBC it's got the largest arena,
it's got a huge payout,
but I'm a little nervous because for the first time
Sandy and I are both gonna show ace.
You don't see it every often
where an owner/non-pro
and an opened rider share the same horse.
But I just hope that, you know, physically,
with this big arena and four runs
that he just doesn't get too tired.
All you have to do to make the finals
with him is just... - Just get my stops.
- To stay clean. - Yeah, clean and get my stops.
And, I mean, if we both make the finals--
- It's awesome, but at the same time,
it does make it more challenging.
You know, we're just gonna have to be careful.
- Icing him, mudding him, taking him to the salt spa.
I mean, we've gotta...
we've gotta save our horse, you know?
We're gonna have to make sure that he's not over-riding
or doing any of that kind of stuff.
- If I was an established trainer,
like a lot of these guys are
that have all these horses to choose from,
I wouldn't have to, you know,
share my derby horse with a non-pro.
But right now that's my one horse
and if I wanna show this is what I gotta do
and I gotta make best of it.
It's just gonna be, you know--
we're just gonna have to be careful, but it's a lot.
- It's definitely not easy but it's gonna be exciting.
- Well, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you, so...
- [chuckles] It's gonna be good.
Enjoying the ride.
[rock music]
* *
- That Cade in there, Joe?
* *
Cade, he's got a really nice horse
that's done well at some of the major events.
- He does turn pretty good, huh?
- So you gotta get really aggressive
and you gotta put your name down
to get the first right to ride these horses.
Looks like a nice horse.
- No kidding?
- So you don't have a price though, huh?
What do you think the price is? - I don't--
- You gotta have a guess, come on.
Don't give me the "my dad"--
- Thought you were gonna say or , maybe?
[laughs] - No.
- Is there anybody in line right now on this horse,
or can I be first?
- Can we shake on that?
'Cause I'd like to be first to try him.
- Sure.
- In our world, in the Western world,
if you shake a guy's hand
that's as good as any of these contracts.
If someone looks you in the eye and shakes your hand
and says he's gonna do something
he'd make sure that it gets done.
All right, I'm going back to the stalls.
Thanks, Cade. - See you later, Matt.
[upbeat country music]
- Everybody enjoys these horse shows,
but we're here and we know we're gonna compete
for a lot of money.
Things get intense.
narrator: The NRBC has two rounds.
The semi-finals, known as the "go-rounds,"
and the finals.
- There's around horses entered
in the open competition at the NRBC.
Top horses will go back for the final Saturday night.
He's not stoppin' when I say, "Whoa."
That's never a good sign.
- Cade, don't weaken, buddy.
- There's always a real possibility,
no matter who you are, that you will make the finals.
- Easy, Cade. - [sighs]
- You cannot make a mistake.
If you make a mistake, you're not gonna win.
- I like that better.
[blues music]
- Ladies and gentlemen, here we are,
National Reining Breeders Classic.
[cheering]
narrator: It's qualifying day at the NRBC,
and with only spots in the finals,
riders are pushing themselves
to prove they belong at the top.
- Those who make it to the finals
have a chance to win the first-place check
for $,.
[crowd cheers]
We are getting very close to start time now
as our judges are about to take position,
ladies and gentlemen.
We've got our first one all lined up,
Jason Vanlandingham.
- I believe that the NRBC
is the toughest horse show that we go to,
Because this is the best talent
of any horse show of the year.
You have to show hard or you're not gonna win.
Matter of fact, if you make a mistake in the go-round
you won't make the finals.
And it's gonna be competitive.
[cheering and whistling]
- Come on, Jason!
[whistle blows]
[dramatic music]
- Big beautiful turn on that right spin right there.
* *
Nice, nice sets of circles.
- Come on, Jason!
* *
Yee-hoo-hoo-hoo!
* *
- Big stop there.
Boom, nice!
- [hollers]
* *
- The scores have come out to a .
.
Very respectable score there for Jason Vanlandingham.
narrator: And with that high score,
Jason Vanlandingham has set the pace.
Riders will need to score above a
in order to make it through to the finals.
- Oh, man.
Right out of the gate with a .
That's hard to b*at.
That's gonna be a problem.
You know, a big problem.
* *
- Ladies and gentlemen, here we are,
National Reining Breeders Classic.
- Yeah! Whoo-hoo!
male narrator: The preliminaries are underway
and only riders will be advancing to the next round.
[crowd screams]
Jason Vanlandingham has secured his place
with a phenomenal score of .
- That was perfect. - Mm-hmm.
narrator: Now riders will have a high bar to clear
if they hope to make it to the finals.
- I'm gonna go win the go-round, hopefully,
so I'm not even thinking about the score,
I'm going in to make a nice run.
[cheers and applause] - Rider Casey Deary.
- Come on, Casey. [whistle blows]
[dramatic music]
- Yeah! Whoo-hoo!
That's how you run! Whoo!
- Coming up next, Andrea Fappani.
* *
- [hollers]
- Continuing on now, Matt Mills comes to us.
- Number , Craig Schmersal.
- [hollering]
[cheers and applause]
- Finish this strong!
narrator: Casey, Andrea, and Matt
all cleared a and will be advancing to the finals.
- Good job.
- Any time you're gettin' over a ,
you're doing your job. - [screams]
narrator: Craig pulls off a nearly flawless run.
- A and one half.
[cheers and whistling]
narrator: Not only will he move on to the finals,
but he's also leapt straight to the top of the leaderboard.
- So right to the top they will go.
narrator: And has made life even harder
for the remaining riders.
- Any last words, Sanders?
- Just have fun!
- I feel a lot of pressure.
A lot of pressure.
Not only do I only have one horse,
but I'm sharing it with the owner as a non-pro.
It's double the rides on the horse.
That's a lot on horse, physically, mentally,
and this one horse has to last me all NRBC.
[clears throat] Ready.
- This is draw , number , being shown by Abby Lengel.
- Abby's doing an outstanding job with Ace,
but she's sharing that horse
and had she stayed working for me,
she would've had more than one horse to show,
but it is what it is.
[whistle blows]
[rock music]
- Nice set of circles there.
- Big turn.
- I have not made the Level Open Finals
at the NRBC before.
- Nice stop there. [all hollering]
- Abby's score of should be enough
to push her through to the finals.
- Who knows, maybe that'll be you one day.
- Next is draw .
Tom McCutcheon rides four-year-old stallion,
Got a Good Nite.
- [whistles]
[dramatic music]
narrator: Tom McCutcheon has yet to make it into the final.
He needs a score of or higher to secure a spot.
* *
- Missed that first stop. Little over spin there.
* *
Had a little bobble there at the slow down,
looks like he might've broke gait.
- Well, the score is in now for Tom McCutcheon,
and one half.
narrator: A disappointing score of /
drops Tom all the way down to th place.
Now the pressure is on his son,
rookie Cade, and his star horse Lacey.
- [whistles]
- Cade McCutcheon--
- Little problem right there.
Couldn't quite hold on to it all the way through.
- A and one half.
And we'll let the tractors do their work.
[suspenseful music]
- Both Tom and Cade have failed
to make it into the finals.
Luckily, they each have one more horse left.
- She wasn't ready. - Yeah, I know, the first one.
- It was stupid to think I could've done that.
- You knew that going in though.
- Yeah, that's why I shouldn't have gone in.
- You can do-- you always take a whack.
When you're a showman, you take a sh*t.
- There are no sure things in the horse business.
When you don't do good, it's a horrible feeling.
And for Cade, he's gonna have a lot of those.
And as his dad, it sucks.
narrator: Cade still has another horse to go,
but not much confidence left.
- All the horses I have at the NRBC are good horses,
but none of them are as good as Lacey.
I feel like I'm definitely not going to make the finals
unless there's some miracle.
[suspenseful music]
* *
- With the preliminaries nearly over,
Tom McCutcheon has one final sh*t on Denuncio,
his best horse.
- Yeah, so many things can go right,
so many things can go wrong.
* *
[grunts]
You know, when you're
and you're trying to get to the top of the mountain,
and I realize that
now I'm on the downside of that mountain.
- Draw number is in,
Tom McCutcheon.
- [whistles]
[distant hollering]
- It's a young man's game, but at this point in time
I still feel like I can kick the young man's butt.
- Come on, you gotta go, you gotta go!
[dramatic music]
* *
- Really pretty here, his horse is guiding really well.
* *
- Big, pretty, set the circles,
really challenging this horse
and it's very pleasing to watch.
[cheering]
Nice job.
* *
Coming on his final run down now,
let's see what he makes of this stop,
if he can really dig in.
[dramatic music]
- Nice stop there.
Oh, boy. - Little trouble there.
- That was a close one.
Tom was backing up
and that horse stepped on his tail, almost fell down.
- The judges that sure are gonna notice that.
- Tail's too long and they need to...
[exhales quickly] cut that thing.
- and one half.
[dramatic music]
- He's out.
- and a half.
Well, [bleep].
That's all I got to say about that.
It's just bad luck.
Sometimes you need things to go your way a little bit,
you need just a little bit of luck, and, uh...
we're not having a lot of that today.
- I am real nervous because
the NRBC's the biggest event of my pro career so far.
[takes deep breath]
Nobody else from my family's made the finals.
The weight of our dynasty is resting on my shoulders.
- Draw number , She's Got Big g*ns,
Cade McCutcheon.
- C'mon, Cade.
- He's a great young man,
great young talent, loves reining.
- Come on, buddy!
* *
- Nice job.
Outstanding set of circles here.
Let's see if we can go get some good stops out of this.
That was as big a stop as you'll see.
- [hollers and whistles]
[suspenseful music]
- Comin' at ya now with the score for Cade McCutcheon...
a .
- * You better watch out, watch out *
- He's miles ahead of where I was.
- Oh my God!
That felt perfect.
That's exactly what I wanted to do.
- Good job, buddy.
- You know, I've gotten through the semifinals,
so now it's up to me to go represent our name.
- Way to be.
- * Watch out for me *
* You better watch out for me *
- Well, that wraps up the open preliminaries.
male narrator: The semifinal round of the NRBC is complete.
All of our riders, except Tom McCutcheon,
have made it through to the finals...
- Son of a bitch!
- With Craig Schmersal taking home the win.
- $,!
- Winning the semifinals is always fun at the NRBC
because it pays so well.
But one thing I know,
when you run through that gate on finals night,
it's any man's game.
[country music]
* *
- I'm not eating anything fried, are you kidding me?
- [laughs]
- Except for the pickles.
- I don't-- aw, the damn pickles.
Well, they're pickles. They're good for you.
- With Tom failing to get into the finals at the NRBC,
all the pressure is falling on Cade's shoulders
to represent the dynasty.
- How do you feel?
- Uh, I feel pretty good right now.
I need to start putting the hammer down a little bit
and saying, "Let's get ready to horse show."
- If it goes good, great,
if it doesn't go good, that's also good,
'cause you'll know what you have to fix for the next one, so...
get after it.
I'm used to being in the finals, so...
being the stands sucks.
But Cade made the finals of the NRBC,
and I'm nervous for him,
but Cade has always been able to step up to the pressure.
- Ready or not, here you come.
* *
- His footwork is so much better.
He looks like a different horse than he did two weeks ago.
- Mike, I've learned a ton from him.
I feel very confident.
I'm excited about the finals.
I might need a seat belt on that.
- I'm studying and every time I see a stumble
I'm trying to think what that horse is thinking.
My run was pretty special
but that wasn't enough to win the finals.
I need to bring it up to another level.
- [clicks tongue]
- He just looks a little sluggish.
- Yeah.
- Yesterday, Abby's owner Sandy
rode her one and only horse, Ace,
in the non-pro semifinals.
- With Ace I just hope that he just doesn't get too tired
because that's a lot for any horse.
[clicks tongue] - Oh, yeah.
You look good, Abby. - Thank you!
- Especially your last slowdown.
- Thank you very much.
- I feel for Abby.
She's in a tough spot.
Both she and her owner have showed that horse quite a bit
and, you know, he's had a lot of wear and tear this year
and that's never a good thing.
* *
[country rock music]
* *
- Now that Cade has agreed
to let Matt have first dibs on his prized horse,
Matt's ranch owner, Tim Ruckman,
is gonna follow up on the deal with Mandy.
- Hi.
- Mm, cupcake! - Cupcakes?
I got beer.
So your kid's riding a cool horse.
Matt kinda brought us to that horse,
but wanted to see what's going on, and...
- Well, he's a really nice horse.
And he just shows good. - Yeah.
- I do have one person in front of you.
[suspenseful music]
She, uh, cornered me when I was out in Scottsdale--
- Okay. - A few months ago,
and she text me as soon as Cade came out the gate,
"Good job on my new horse!" - Right?
- He's just been a show horse. Every time he walks in the pen.
- All right.
- But I'll call you very shortly, okay?
- Yep. - All right.
- Thank you. - I didn't find it.
- I appreciate it, Tim. Thank you.
- Well, [bleep].
[tense music]
* *
- What ya thinkin', bud?
- Probably gonna talk about that horse.
The horse is out...so we're looking for a new horse.
- Oh. - We've gotta find out
what the hell happened to the McCutcheons.
- Oh, for Cade's horse? - Yeah.
- Aw, man--and it's a nice horse, for sure...
- Well, yeah. - So I'll go talk with her.
Son of a g*n.
* *
Bonnie, did you guys see Mandy come through here?
No?
* *
- Oh, there she is.
* *
You got a minute?
It kinda caught me off guard there
that you had somebody else first.
I shook hands with Cade the other day
on first right of refusal.
- Oh, really?
That's a bummer, 'cause Cade's not an adult yet.
- Go find Tom, Tom told me. - I will.
'Cause Tom's the one that told me when to watch the horse.
- Everybody knows who's in charge, right?
- We shook hands on it though.
He told me the whole,
just need to check on the price,
he was supposed to let me know...
- Dude, I gotta do what's right.
The first person that asked us.
- I think I'm gettin' jobbed right here.
- Oh, I don't think so.
I'm a straight up--honest, that's how I do things.
Straight up.
- You keep a straight face when you say that?
Well, I'm not letting this go though.
- I'll handle it. I told you--
- Yeah, I can tell how you're handling it.
You guys just do whatever you want.
We shake and you tell me, "No, it's not a deal."
- I didn't shake hands with you!
That is not true. - All right.
* *
I haven't done a ton of business with the McCutcheons,
but the little bit I've done, uh, it hasn't been good.
They haven't stuck to what they say they would do.
If you shake hands on something, what does that mean?
- Done deal.
- If you shake hands, it's supposed to be that simple.
That's supposed to be the cowboy way.
Cade and I shook hands, and where we all come from,
that's cowboy code for "deal is done."
I need a horse bad, everybody knows that,
but that was bull[bleep].
* We'll all be saying *
* I don't know you *
* *
narrator: Back at her stable,
Abby Lengel was prepping her only horse, Ace,
for his run at the NRBC finals.
- What's wrong? What would you do without me?
- I don't know. Now I can't see.
Right there. - You said you couldn't see!
- I couldn't until I took my glasses off.
I can see far away, just not close.
- Abby. - Hi, Thiago, how are you?
- Good, how are you? - Good to see you.
- Good seeing you.
Hey, rumor is that you are looking for a horse
to show in the Vegas deal?
- Yes, I am, actually, I am.
- You think he'd be a pretty good for me as far as--
- I think it'd be a great fit.
- I've watched that horse his whole life
and I've always thought he looked super cool.
The Rock, I mean, that horse has proven
that he can lay down big scores
pretty consistently.
A lot of guys have shown that horse and done well.
- I would love to try him.
Fantastic, awesome.
Man, I am-- that's awesome.
I'm very excited, Thiago, thank you.
- Yep, yep. - Thank you so much.
[mellow country music]
- Thank you, Thiago. - Good deal, yeah.
- I'll come and try him when I get back.
- Yeah, call me and we'll get together.
- Perfect.
- So I saw you talking to Thiago.
- His one stipulation was that
I can't take him unless he's gonna be my number one.
- How would you know until you got to show him though?
- Sandy definitely wants me to ride Ace,
in the Run For A Million in Vegas,
um, I mean, what owner wouldn't?
So, that being said, Ace is very, very, consistent
but The Rock, I mean, he can do a lot more than Ace.
My very first step is I'm gonna have to try him
and see if I get along with him. - Right.
- You know, it gets close to the event and then...
Ace comes up sore or... - Something.
- Something happens and then I don't have a horse, so...
- That looks like it'll fit plenty.
- Sandy is a great friend of mine...
[exhales, blows raspberry] But my loyalty to Sandy
does not and will not affect my decision.
My main goal is to win.
No matter what.
[dramatic music]
* *
male narrator: The day of the finals has arrived.
Today of the best horses
will face off in a single arena
with over grand on the line.
- We've gotta go win this thing.
- Grab a towel and wipe him off.
narrator: The riders know that whoever wins the NRBC
will be the one to b*at
at the Run For A Million in Vegas.
- You can guarantee that there's gonna be some train wrecks
'cause we're all gonna be goin' for it.
Don't tell him I didn't wash my hands
after I peed in the stall.
Thank you right now for this amazing opportunity
that you brought before Abby.
[cheers and applause]
[dramatic music]
- We're looking forward to draw number , Abby Lengel.
narrator: Abby Lengel is up for her one and only ride.
- Reining is definitely a male-dominated sport.
A lot of women don't do it because they think they can't.
I think it can be done and I can prove it can be done.
- Yeah! Whoo!
[whistle blows]
- Abby Lengel, our only young lady
in the Level Finals tonight.
* *
- Come on! Come on! - Come on!
- Beautiful-- wow, that's big.
[cheers and applause]
- A little trouble gettin' out of the ground right there.
* *
- Nice set of turns there,
might've shut off just a touch early.
We'll see what the judges see on that.
They got the best seat in the house.
Big finish.
- Ace, big finishes!
- Nice stop there. [cheers and applause]
[screaming]
- We got a score in for Abby with a and one half.
- That was awesome!
- Oh, Sanders, he wasn't with me anywhere.
- Doesn't matter-- - No, he was--
like he-- felt like he missed me.
* *
Ace was just worn out.
Can't help but think that, you know,
it's because he was ran so many times at this horse show
between Sandy and I both showing him
and...it's a little bit of a concern to me.
[cheers and applause]
- Come on, Casey!
- Next up, Abby's rival, Casey Deary.
[whistle blows]
- Big turn.
- Come on. - Nice little horse here.
He's really cool in the circles.
- Finish it strong!
- Got himself tangled up a little bit.
- [sighs]
- It will be a .
[whistle blows]
So continuing on now,
Matt Mills comes to us.
- Nice stop there. Boom.
- [screaming]
- Big, big maneuvering.
- Whoo! Come on, come on, faster!
- See if we can go get some good stops out of this.
That was as big a stop as you'll see.
[cheers and applause]
- Matt Mills and Wimpy's Slidewinder...
is the score.
- As happy as I am that I made the finals,
Vegas, you need to have
as great a horse as you possibly can.
And those scores aren't going to be high enough to win.
I've got to find a better horse
for the Run For A Million.
[suspenseful music]
- No pressure.
* *
- My dad, he didn't make the finals,
so now it's up to me to go represent our name.
- Cade McCutcheon is coming up.
[whistle blows] - Come on, Cade-o!
[whistles]
- One of the bright stars of this sport.
- Nice stop there.
- [whistles]
* *
- Wow. - Good job there.
- Come on, buddy, come on!
- He's having a really nice go right here.
- Come on!
- Let's see what he makes of this stop.
[cheers and applause]
- Beautiful. - Nice stop there.
[cheers and applause]
- The score is now in. result.
[upbeat western music]
- It was big to say,
"Hey, I'm here, I'm ready, I can compete."
- Good job.
- I can go make the big boy finals,
I can play with all the top guys.
- Craig Schmersal is coming up next.
- Okay, ladies and gentlemen, get your popcorn ready.
It's gonna be exciting to see what Craig does.
[whistle blows]
[dramatic music]
* *
- Nailed that first stop.
- [hollers]
- [whistling]
- We had a little problem right there,
when you saw that right front leg
fly out there like that.
* *
- Whoa. - Nice, nice.
- Come on, Craig!
* *
- Boy, just didn't catch that ground
like you'd like to right there.
- It's too bad.
- A score will come in for Craig Schmersal, .
- Do you still love me, Addy?
[laughter]
- So we've got two sets remaining here
before we determine who gets the big check--
$, at stake here in our open finals
at the National Reining Breeders Classic.
* *
- So I'm getting ready to go into my finals run on Coal
and I'm fired up, and so I back my horse
all the way back out to the parking lot,
and I'm running full speed by the time I through the gate.
[whistle blows]
* *
- Yeah! - Yeah!
- Good first stop.
[cheers and applause]
- Hey, hey, great spin.
* *
Really pleasing to watch right here.
He just makes it look easy.
* *
- Yeah, wow! - This run was great.
- Well, as he finished up the run, too,
it looks like the sun that was shining on his face
was a bit of an omen.
His score came in
right where he wanted it to be,
at the top of the list with a and a half.
[all scream]
narrator: With that score,
Jason is tied for first place with Nathan Piper.
But Andrea is the last rider remaining,
and has a chance to break the tie.
- I know, he was amazing!
- We're gonna move along to Andrea Fappani.
narrator: If Andrea doesn't score high enough
to break the tie,
Jason and Nathan will have the option
to do a runoff for first place,
or split the championship and the prize money.
[dramatic music]
- You know, Andrea is probably
one of the hardest-working guys in our industry
and he has a good chance to b*at me.
- You got Andrea coming in here,
and he's gonna be taking a good hard run
at that high score here tonight.
male narrator: Jason remains tied for first place
with Nathan Piper.
But Andrea has one more chance to win it all.
[suspenseful music]
[whistle blows]
- Whizkey Chaser, Andrea Fappani.
- You got Andrea coming in here
and he's no stranger to the winner's circle.
- Oh, oh.
- He had a nice big first stop there.
This is a really nice horse.
- Oh, yeah!
[screams]
- 'Cause you got their attention
they know that you can mark big scores.
* *
- Hold that tight, baby! - You got it, come on!
- Nice, nice sets of circles.
He is really trying to lay down a run here.
[screaming] - Yeah!
- Now you can't make any mistakes.
The smallest mistake you make,
now it's Andrea Fappani making a mistake.
- Oh, Andrea's missed that first stop.
End up a little bit further than he would have liked.
- That's gonna have a bit of an impact
on this maneuver score.
- Hey, easy.
- Massive big right turns there.
- So now you've got a double-edged sword
a little bit to where, yeah, you got their full attention
and they're ready to mark you
but also ready to knock you down
if you don't do as well.
* *
- Oh, right here.
Oh.
* *
- Ooh. - Oh, oh, oh.
- Ooh, little bounce there in the front end.
Didn't work out the way they want it to as a result.
- [groans]
- And the score comes in
at a and one half.
That was, of course, the result
for Andrea Fappani and Whizkey Chaser.
[somber music]
- I don't know if I had him a little bit too tired,
or if I didn't have him sharp enough.
It felt to me like he never really adapted to the ground.
I'm disappointed in myself, not the horse,
because on him I don't feel
that I prepared him well enough.
Uh, and I need to figure out what I did wrong
and try to make it better.
So, it cost me big.
- Don't--don't talk to him, just let him be.
He's clearly pretty frustrated.
- That probably cost us $ grand.
That little thing right there tonight.
We're gonna leave from probably being top three
to being at the bottom of the whole thing.
* *
- And now it leaves us with the / tie
between those two entries,
Jason Vanlandingham and Nathan Piper,
to make their decision on whether or not
they will be coming back here for a runoff.
[suspenseful music]
- This right here...
is big, big stuff.
* *
- I would bet on my horse, but at the same time,
you know, we can save that run for later on.
'Cause we gotta be running him in Vegas
later on in the year too.
And that's a million dollars.
- If that was me,
it would be really tough to just go co-champion.
You know, then you gotta share everything
and it just takes away
a little bit of the bragging rights.
- What do you think?
- That I think the dumbest thing on earth you could do
is run it off, 'cause right now you're a champion.
- I never split the pot.
I'd rather take less but try to win it.
To me there's only one champion
and there's a bunch of losers.
* *
- Let's leave this thing a tie, let's save the horses.
- Okay.
[energetic rock music]
- I didn't want to push that horse again
and go put another run on him.
You know, we're planning on showing this horse
at the Run For A Million,
and that's the top priority in our life.
* *
narrator: The NRBC is over
and while Jason and his co-champion revel in victory
the other riders know the most important battle lies ahead:
The Run For A Million in Vegas.
- years old and that's never happened to me, so...
I need to figure out what I did wrong
and before the Run For The Million,
so I'm gonna need to step it up.
- Look at Addy with bangs. - [laughs]
- Even though I didn't end up in the top at the NRBC,
I made my goal to, you know, make the Level Open Finals,
I hadn't done that before.
- Hey, Abby. - Hi, Ginger.
- How's your Vegas situation looking?
- It, uh, I'm gonna try a horse right after this show.
- We have a few, so if something doesn't work out,
you know, contact me.
- Thank you very much. - You bet.
* *
I'm loyal to Sandy
and I've been successful on Ace,
but I'm gonna choose what horse I think I have
the best chances on for Run For A Million.
- Congratulations, Danny.
This is such a tough career.
Most don't make it, you know? They really don't.
They get knocked down a few times and they quit.
But I refuse to go down like that.
It's the ones that just keep clawing,
keep clawing, keep clawing, and knock that door down,
those are the ones that get to the top.
That's gonna be me.
- Right now Ace and The Rock are my two choices.
The Rock's big, strong.
- So what do you think you wanna do?
- That choice could make me or break me.
- There's such a huge expense building a house.
If I don't win, everything could go away completely.
- Vegas is the biggest event.
I need to show I've still got it.