The National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) announced remarkable success for the very first NRHA Sire and Dam Program online auction. The online auction for 2007 breedings began November 15 and ran through December 2. The “eBay-style” bidding war took off during the 2006 NRHA Futurity at the Oklahoma State Fair Park in Oklahoma City, OK. It went down to the final minutes leading up to cutoff at 8:00 pm CST on Saturday, December 2.

The online auction was created to give the NRHA membership an opportunity to buy a Sire and Dam breeding that in the past may have been pre-sold before it was donated. Also incorporated into the auction concept was the Top 20 Sires Program, which was the idea of NRHA Professional Tom McCutcheon. The Top 20 Sires Program is the answer to many concerns by mare owners who had previously not had the opportunity to purchase a breeding to one of the Top 20 stallions.

The list of the Top 20 Sires is comprised of those stallions appearing in the NRHA 2005 Year in Review—2005 Leading Sires’ rankings. The owners of those Top 20 Sires choose whether or not they want to donate to the Sire and Dam Program. In order to participate, the owners of the Top 20 Sires were required to donate at least one breeding to the online auction. After the first donation, the stallion owners have the option of donating additional breedings to be sold for 60% of the current year’s breeding fee. All other stallion owners were given the option of being in the auction or having their breedings sold at 60% of their advertised fee.

McCutcheon felt the online auction would be a much better way to make these breedings available to everyone and it would also increase the revenue to the Sire and Dam Program, which would provide more benefits to the NRHA membership. All of the stallion owners agreed. McCutcheon said, “For most of the breeders, it was different, and change is always scary, and it has been such a good program through the years as far as raising money, and I think people are always a little bit afraid to mess with something that has a good track record. I just didn’t see any way it could miss, and I believed in the auction.” And he had good reason to believe in it. The new NRHA Sire and Dam Program online auction is being hailed a success, bringing in close to $180,000. McCutcheon looks forward to the program becoming even stronger in the coming years.

NRHA Sire and Dam Program Coordinator Dandy Oltermann is pleased by the positive response she’s received about the online auction. “I think it went over really well. I get calls all the time now from people who bid on the stallions about how excited they are. They’re people who would never have had the opportunity to breed their mares to those studs if it weren’t for the online auction. It gave them the option, and they are thrilled with it.”

The sire receiving the most bids was One Time Pepto (Peptoboonsmal x One Time Soon) owned by Jeffrey Matthews of Warsaw, NC. With 152 bids, One Time Pepto’s breeding went for more than double his regular stud fee of $5,000. With a starting bid of 60% of One Time Pepto’s regular breeding fee, the bids closed at $10,030. Next in line came Gunner, one of the NRHA Sire and Dam Top 20 Sires. Gunner (Colonelfourfreckle x Katie Gun) received 80 bids and closed at $7,725.00. Gunner is owned by McQuay Stables of Tioga, TX.

One Time Pepto is a highly sought after sire in the cutting world. Matthews said he never considered the NRHA Sire and Dam Program until Carol Rose approached him with the idea of offering a breeding. Matthews said he credits Rose for urging him to take that leap of faith by offering the breeding in a new market. “I’m overwhelmed he brought in double his stud fee and topped the list,” said Matthews.

Matthews grew up reining and has always loved the people involved in the sport.