Junior Nogueira's prolific Apache R Hali is one of the winningest rope horses of all time, responsible for the lion's share of earnings that won two PRCA gold buckles, and on Thanksgiving Day, an embryo by the QData's #1 Roping Sire for 2023, Woody Be Tuff, out of the great gray mare will sell in the Select Online Sale.
This will be the first and only publicly available embryo out of the mare who's estimated earnings top $750,000, named one of the top rope horses of all-time and top mares of all-time by The Team Roping Journal. She's had two colts sell to Brazil, and the three-time PRCA World Champion Nogueira has two 2-year-olds he's riding now to campaign in 2025 and one weanling by One Time Pepto he plans to keep, too.
"Hali has been the biggest blessing in my life, and she taught me to be a professional," Nogueira said of the mare who's also won the AQHA's Senior Heading World Championship. "She changed my career. Now, the two babies I have out of her right now are so much like her—so strong, so willing and so talented. Horses like Hali are what pushes the rope horse industry farther, and Woody Be Tuff was the obvious choice this year to cross her on. I want to see Hali's babies in the best hands, so selling this embryo through the Select Online Sale is the way to make that happen."
Apache R Hali first carried Kollin VonAhn on his gold-buckle campaign in 2015 when she was only 7, and then Nogueira purchased the mare in 2016 and won the PRCA's all-around cowboy title that same year. Apache R Hali and Nogueira have won the Spicer Gripp Memorial twice, the Wildfire Open to the World, the US Open and the #15.5 Shootout, and nearly every major ProRodeo—including Puyallup, Washington, Spanish Fork, Utah, Oakley City, Utah, and Livingston, Montana.
"The team roping industry hasn't done a great job of breeding and promoting its top mares," Ty Smith, Solo Select CEO said. "Junior is one of the first to have a mare of this caliber and promote her like the rest of the performance horse world has done, and so far, the results have been exceptional. There just aren't other opportunities to buy an embryo out of a mare like this, who has won at such a high level for so long. Kollin VonAhn's training made this mare a winner, and Junior's abilities continued to showcase her at the elite stages of the industry."
Apache R Hali is by Apache Blue Boy, who long held the title as the all-time earner in the rope horse industry, having earned 12 AQHA world championships and 1,719.5 AQHA points, banking more than $119,000 solely in AQHA competition at a time when that was no easy feat.
"We've spent years offering babies out of proven show horse mares, who've won under
judged competition," Solo Select's Melanie Smith said. "But this is our first opportunity to allow our customers the chance to have a ProRodeo mare who's won with one of the roping industry's most exciting names. Hali has proven herself for almost a decade as one of team
roping's top horses, and we're grateful Junior is giving Solo Select's customers the first opportunity to be a part of this journey. And even better that it's an embryo by Woody Be Tuff, who's been such a part of our journey."
Woody Be Tuff is the Western performance industry's most proven outcross, by Nitas Wood out of Tuffs Junie by Tuff Lena. His 2024 stud fee is $6,500, and he stands at the Lazy E. This embryo will be eligible for the Breeders Invitational, Gold Buckle Futurities, NCHA Stallion Stakes, NRBC, NRCHA Stallion Stakes, Riata Buckle, Royal Crown/Roping, Ruby Buckle and The Diamond Classic.
The Thanksgiving Embryo and Mixed Select Online Sale starts Nov. 26, 2023, at 8 a.m. CST and closes at 5 p.m. CST the same day only at bid.theselectonline.com.
