Short Go, No Mercy: Thiccthirty's 230.09 Reorders the Old West Breakaway Finals

HEBER CITY, Utah—Thiccthirty, a 4-year-old Metallic Cattack gelding bred by Solo Select Horses and owned by Blake A. Cavataio, won the $15,000-added Old West Pre-Futurity Breakaway (4-&-Under) Finals on Saturday, climbing from third in the aggregate to the title on a short-round-best 230.09.

Cheyanne McCartney rode the gelding to the finish, and the short round did the moving. Thiccthirty had opened with a 219.76 to place seventh in Round 1, then a 224.74 to place second in Round 2, leaving him third in the aggregate at 444.50 heading into the short go. He sat behind aggregate leader Masterpiece Returns (454.88) and second-place Shes Super Tuff Le (447.49) before his finals run reordered the class.

The win extends a hot 2026. Through June 11, Thiccthirty had banked $29,450 in breakaway futurity earnings, ranking third among 4-&-Under breakaway horses and fourth in the 6-&-Under standings, all of it from the Gold Buckle Futurities Spring Showdown in Ardmore, Oklahoma. There, McCartney and Thiccthirty won the 4-&-Under Breakaway with a 922.95 on four head for that $29,450 check.

The gelding also earns from the calf side. Cody McCartney piloted Thiccthirty to the 4-&-Under Tie-Down Roping win at the same Ardmore event, scoring 895.3 on four head for $28,332. Across both disciplines, Thiccthirty earned $58,002 in Ardmore, the second-highest total of any horse at the event. He is a contender for the 2026 Gold Buckle Futurities Super Horse Award, which recognizes horses earning money in two or more disciplines.

Thiccthirty is out of Nurse Connie and is a 2022 foal. Blake and Hayley Cavataio purchased him in the fall of 2024, his 3-year-old year, from Solo Select. He was already in Cody and Cheyanne McCartney's training program. As a 3-year-old, he placed third in the AQHA World Show prelims.

"I bred Nurse Connie because of the kind of ability she had, and Thiccthirty is everything I hoped a foal of hers would be. Watching him come from third in the aggregate to win that short round, I just love this colt," Ty Smith said.

His sire, Metallic Cattack, is a stallion co-owned by Solo Select Horses and Kurt Neff's 7K Quarter Horses, and was crowned Top Sire at the Gold Buckle Futurities 2026 Spring Event. The stallion placed two horses on the 2026 top money-earner lists: Kryptoniite in heading and Thiccthirty in breakaway.

The Old West Rope Horse Futurity ran June 14–21 at the Wasatch County Fairgrounds in Heber City under ARHFA rules, with the Pre-Futurity Breakaway contested over two rounds and a short go.