Cheyenne Wimberley and HP Valentino topped the 2026 Ruby Buckle Central Futurity 1D Round 2 in 16.861 Friday at the Lazy E Arena.
The win paid $8,000 to owners Jason Martin and Charlie Cole of Highpoint Performance Horses in Pilot Point, Texas, with $1,000 in stallion incentive to Winners Version and $1,000 to breeder Kelly Conrado of Rapid City, South Dakota.
See full Ruby Buckle Central results and recap here.
The 2021 sorrel gelding is by Winners Version out of Cfour Tibbie Stinson, the mare campaigned by Kelly’s daughter Ivy (Conrado) Saebens that helped take Ivy to her first National Finals Rodeo and earned around $500,000 in recorded lifetime earnings during their tenure together.
Kelly and Cheyenne go way back, and their friendship is what landed HP Valentino eventually in her barn.
“Kelly and I come from similar backgrounds. We train the same,” Wimberley said. “He’s been the only person that’s ever rode a couple of mine that I would send to him to maybe take just some futurities.”
Early on, Conrado had a hunch that Wimberley would be the perfect jockey for the long-strides gelding.
“It was probably January or February of his 3-year-old year, Kelly got him from Ashley (Schafer)…he was adamant. He would send me videos of exhibitions. He’s like, this is going to be your colt. I’m telling you, this is going to be your colt.”
Before Wimberley stepped aboard, having Conrado around riding the horse was reminiscent of his dam, “Tibbie,” and her time spent in Texas.
“Kelly spent the winters here, so Kelly rode Tibbie a ton while he was here,” Wimberley said. “I honestly believe if you weren’t highly involved with a horse and so determined as Kelly was, I don’t know if Tibbie would have made it, because she was work. And the day she made it, she was fantastic.”
HP Valentino isn’t a carbon copy of his dam. Tibbie was a hot, all-go mare; HP Valentino is, “borderline on the lazy side when he’s at home” in Wimberley’s words. But the resemblance shows up in the technical work.
“There is similarities in the bits and the way that they want to turn,” Wimberley said. “I wish I could say there was 100 percent of all of it. But it’s hard to replicate the ones that are that great.”
The sire influence, however, has peaked Wimberley’s interest. It’s her first experience with the Ruby Buckle stallion Winners Version on the top half of the pedigree.
“The one thing I can say about the Winners Versions is they’re extremely fast,” Wimberley said. “When you look at all the Winners Versions and put them on those standard patterns, you’re seeing racehorse speed. He’s not very big, but he’s pretty long, and he’s not real long-backed. So his stride is crazy…You have to get a feel for it.”
HP Valentino has placed everywhere he has been in 2026, but the average checks have lagged the round checks because of two-run timing issues. Wimberley made a deliberate mindset shift coming into the Ruby Buckle.
“Going to the Ruby I said, I will not ride him thinking he’s going to do something,” Wimberley said. “I’m just going to have to ride him for the round that he’s at, because that’s cost us both a lot.”
Round 1 was a Brittany Tonozzi day in the 1D—Tonozzi and Blazzin The Way ran 16.956. Wimberley’s Round 1 was a fight.
“He just was pretty ratey,” she said. “I hadn’t ran a left-handed horse in that pattern. He was pretty working on his right-handed turns and he kind of rated a little bit sooner than I expected. So I got after him a little bit more in my warm-up than I ever have, and woke him up a little bit, and was like, look, you got to get across the pen. Which he did.”
She got it on Friday. The 16.861 sat on top through 200 more runs to the round.
“I had 200 horses after me, and it still stood,” Wimberley said. “I was already to Wichita Falls by the time I found out!”
She is quick to credit the owners.
“Highpoint’s been a great team to ride for,” Wimberley said. “They’ve just been so supportive in the industry, and you’re never surprised when people like them actually get horses like this because they put the thought into it. They listened when Kelly wanted to send me this horse. It’s really hard to hand the keys to you, good luck, and not take control. They’re really good about just being supportive and having faith that you’re going to get that horse where you’re supposed to be.”
Wimberley keeps a small string by design.
“I’m not a person that rides 20 horses a day. I spent a lot of time on one horse,” Wimberley said. “For example, I’ve taken time to rope on this one quite a bit already. I enjoy the horse. Every horse to me is just a challenge to get them to their best position. And if I only ride three or four a day, that’s okay. I really enjoy the process.”
She closed with an industry observation about who shows up to ride at the Lazy E in Buckle weeks. The 2026 Ruby Buckle Central go-rounds and averages were stacked with a diverse field of riders. The old-school “divide,” between cowgirls who make their living going to rodeos aboard a couple of great horses, and those who train for the public and aim for futurity and derby titles, is all but nonexistent in 2026.
“I love to see that the rodeo girls really shine out there,” Wimberley said. “They almost won every round of the derby and the futurity at Ruby Buckle. I don’t think there’s really that division that people want to make anymore in this sport. We’re all just really good jockeys trying to showcase a horse, and I think that gets lost a little bit. Whether it’s the futurity riders or the open riders or the rodeo riders, we’re all really just trying to do right by that horse the best we can.”
Great breeders, and great producers, help make the platform sustainable in Wimberley’s eyes.
“We’re fortunate to have that now,” Wimberley said. “The amount of great barrel races happening every week, with all these great horses, we’re all able to do that now. That’s really an avenue that we’re able to see, and able to see the horses continue.”