Quarter Horse News
by Mark Thompson
Cody Hedlund presented his horse-training dad with the best possible Father’s Day present on Sunday at The Non Pro Plus The Open cutting in Oklahoma City, winning the featured 4-Year-Old Non-Pro finals with a 222 aboard his mare Teles Bout This Cat to earn $6,429 while his father, Rock Hedlund, assisted as a herd helper.
Teles Bout This Cat (WR This Cats Smart x Teles Lies x Lenas Telesis) is kind of a father and son project. Rock Hedlund originally owned and initiated the horse’s training, then sold the mare to his son and turned over the training reins to Cody, too, last August.
“It’s been a very nice project and she’s been an awful nice mare,” said Rock Hedlund, who trains horses in Acampo, Calif. “It’s been nice to raise one that can be a champion.” Cody’s mother, Landy, traveled to Oklahoma with Rock and also watched Cody win.
Cody Hedlund turned 21 in April and lives in Weatherford, Texas. Teles Bout This Cat, the first horse he has “finished” as a late 3-year-old, after taking over from his father, has turned out well, he said. “She’s been a good little mare and she tries her heart out every time we go down there.”
April 16 in Fort Worth, Texas, on his dad’s birthday, Cody Hedlund and Teles Bout This Cat won the 4-Year-Old Non-Pro title at the NCHA Super Stakes to earn $21,763. The duo debuted with a fifth-place finish in the Non-Pro finals at the NCHA Futurity on Dec. 9 to earn $32,478. They’ve already teamed up to earn more than $80,000 in combined cutting earnings with several months remaining in the mare’s 4-year-old season. Read about Cody’s win at the NCHA Super Stakes
Until Cody Hedlund and Teles Bout This Cat competed from the No. 13 draw in the 14-horse finals, a pair of 216s remained tied for The Non Pro lead with two horses left. Holly Francois, wife of Murchison, Texas, trainer Lee Francois, and their mare Dualsadie (Dual Pep x Smart Letha x Smart Little Lena) marked a 220 from the last draw to finish as reserve champions and earn $5,173. The 220 she marked in the finals was the top score Holly, a prior career earner of less than $30,000, had ever posted in her cutting career.
“Usually if we have one [a horse owned by the couple that looks like a good non-pro prospect for her], we end up selling it pretty quick,” Francois said. I do have her [Dualsadie, a prior career winner of $8,528] entered in the [NCHA] Derby [July in Fort Worth] and Lee’s going to show her tomorrow [in the first round of The Open 4-Year-Old Open event in Oklahoma City] and in the [Fort Worth NCHA] Derby as well.”
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