DaCota Monk is a back-to-back Ruby Buckle West futurity champion, riding the buckskin mare CT Delight to the 2D Futurity title at the Bastian Agricultural Center June 23–27 for a $28,400 futurity haul.
Monk built the win on two clean runs. CT Delight clocked 16.056 to place third in the opening round for $4,400, then won the second round on a 15.762 worth $8,000. Her 31.818 two-run total topped the 1D average and the $16,000 champion’s check. The same time led the 5D Open average, adding another $12,000.
Between the futurity and the open, CT Delight closed the week as the Ruby Buckle West’s top-earning horse, banking $47,120 for Otero—more than any other horse in any class on the grounds.
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“I’ve been wanting a win for this mare, because she’s just really starting to step up and try,”Monk said. “I knew she was capable of doing it. It’s a Ruby Buckle, so I always want to try to go, and I knew she’d like the ground there and the setup.”
CT Delight is a 2021 buckskin daughter of Traffic Guy out of Our Genuine Delight, bred by McColee Land & Livestock and owned by Carlee Otero of Perrin, Texas. Her run helped make Traffic Guy one of the week’s top money sires, with $6,530 in stallion incentive earned by his foals at the West.
The mare wins on effort, grit and athletic ability.
“She’s not really ratey, but she just runs as fast as she can to her spot and then just spins,” Monk said. “She’s still in straight lines, she’s still close to the barrel. She doesn’t sling it. She just moves it over. It’s the weirdest thing.”
She uses every part of her body and pulls from start to finish. It’s the kind of all-out try Monk builds his program around.
She arrived in form, having won the opening round at the Colorado Classic, and Monk kept her management light into the West, favoring easy rides over hard barrel work, so she walked into the Ruby Buckle exhibitions feeling like herself.
Monk also adjusted his hands in the run, keeping his right hand on the rein longer than usual down the alley.
“It was definitely mental,” Monk said.
Switching too soon, he found, got in the mare’s way and backed her off; staying right kept her free and running hard into the first. With the long setup and the white walls at South Jordan on his mind, he kept both runs clean.
“When she smoked her first both days, I was like, ‘You better do your job the rest of this run,’ because she wants it,” Monk said.
The title is the first Monk has won for Otero, who bought the mare this year. The two had been friends for years and grew closer when Otero picked up a pair of mares the Monk family had started and campaigned, leaning on them for advice. When Otero asked about the buckskin, Monk made a call of his own.
“She’s not supposed to be [available]…but let me call (her owner) Ted,” Monk said.
Otero closed the deal.
A year ago, Monk won the same futurity aboard Seis Martinis. CT Delight made it two in a row, and Monk expects the partnership with Otero to keep producing.
“She’s a smart woman when it comes to business and picking out horses, and [the mare’s] been really good for her,” Monk said. “I’m excited about the whole team.”
For Monk, the mare fits how he likes to win.
“I want that winning attitude, because that’s how my attitude is,” he said. “I guess it just matches.”