Brian Bell & Crystalized Whizkey Win 2023 NRHA Open Futurity Championship
A raucous crowd was entertained by incredible runs in the Jim Norick Coliseum as the scores of the 2023 National Reining Horse Association Futurity MS Diamonds TX Level 4 Finals climbed higher and higher. The audience was confident that Brian Bell and Crystalized Whizkey would take the win with a 225.5, but if the sport has proven anything, it’s that it’s not over until it’s over.
The crowd was one of the largest in Futurity history, and the energy was palpable as NRHA Eight Million Dollar Rider Andrea Fappani ran into the pen as the last draw of the night and attempted to circumvent the lead.
With another 225.5, Fappani had secured what could have been a co-championship. But for Bell, who had yet to win his first Level 4 Futurity Championship, it wasn’t enough. He rewrapped his horse’s legs, zipped up his chaps, and ran in again to earn another impressive score of 224.5 to earn the coveted title.
“I’ve been second twice, by half a point,” Bell said. “I just couldn’t do it, I needed to know that I risked it all.”
Bell rode Crystalized Whizkey, a mare by Whizkey N Diamonds out of Lonely At The Top, owned by Wallace Wood. This win earned the pair an incredible $350,000, with a portion of that, $17,500, going back to the nominator, Rhodes River Ranch.
Crystalized Whizkey is a niece of Shesouttayourleague, one of the competitors in the last run-off that occurred at an NRHA Futurity in 2015. Making the event one for the history books, Fappani rode Inferno Thirty Five, a son of NRHA Two Million Dollar Sire Inferno Sixty Six, the other competitor in the 2015 run-off.
Heading into the NRHA Futurity, Bell was just shy of the money needed to be eligible to compete in The American Performance Horsemen presented by Teton Ridge in 2024, which factored into his decision to risk it all and go for first place, as second-place earnings wouldn’t qualify him.
“I just decided to go for it,” Bell said. “I know I’ve got a good horse; she’s strong, and she’s gutsy, so I’m not going to back off.”
Anyone who was a part of that roaring crowd, whether they were one who threw their hat in the arena or not, will keep this historic championship close to mind, but for Bell, it’s certainly a night he’ll never forget.
Read more:
NRHA News – National Reining Horse Association
