Stacy Glause is a lifelong barrel horse trainer, but there’s something special about SG LifeInTheFastLane, “Armani,” and it’s not just the $16,000 he banked in the first round of the 2023 Pink Buckle derby in Guthrie, Oklahoma, on October 3.
“I’ve been training horses for a long time and had some good ones,” Glause (57) said. “But the good ones are few and far between. (Armani) turned things around. It’s been fun to be on one again where I know if I do my job, I have a shot (at winning).”
Armani seized his shot in the first of two rounds on the Lazy E’s standard pattern with a blitzing 16.767-second run, earning $16,000 for Glause as the owner, $2,000 for her as the breeder and $2,000 to the Jarvis family, owners of The Goodbye Lane. With the win, the 6-year-old gelding will cross the $100,000 mark in lifetime earnings after going into Pink Buckle with $93,976 in QData’s recorded earnings.
Glause isn’t just Armani’s breeder—he’s three generations in the making. She rode his maternal granddam, Little Dash of Kirk, whom she called “Gucci.”
“She was one of the most consistent and fun horses ever,” Glause said. “But her career got cut short, so we bred her to Poco Jijerito.”
The product was Full Of Fame, Armani’s dam.
“She was wicked fast, but naughty,” Glause said with a laugh.
Full Of Fame found her calling as a broodmare after her barrel racing career, thanks in part to Mark Jarvis, owner of The Goodbye Lane.
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“My last run on (Full Of Fame) was in Spanish Fork,” Glause explained. “Mark Jarvis was watching her, and knew of her mom, Gucci, and he immediately began encouraging me to breed her. He promised (a The Goodbye Lane foal) would be good-minded out of her, and his promise held firm.”
Consistency was a struggle for Glause during Armani’s futurity season. They developed a habit of smoking a run in the first round of the event and then following it with a tipped barrel on the second trip. Then, she put in the work to turn things around before the gelding’s derby year.
“I fixed me,” Glause said. “He’s so fast going across the pen, I would generally sit too early. My safety mechanism would kick in and I would mess up little things. It wasn’t a lack of trying on his part, I just had to learn how to get his feet where they belonged without overhandling him.”
Glause noted that Armani’s style was a switch-up from her usual type of horse.
“He’s really turny,” Stacy Glause said. “I’ve always ridden horses off the track, or bigger horses that you have to put together. Part of the struggle has been being brave enough to get up in the hole in the turn on him. But he really pins his ears and cows a barrel. He tries so hard.”
Armani’s derby year has been a profitable one, and not just at the age-restricted events. Glause and the grey gelding earned $9,930.51 in the WPRA’s Wilderness Circuit standings, and the duo will enter the Wilderness Circuit Finals in November ranked No. 9 in the circuit. Glause’s last circuit finals was in 2007, so her 2023 season has felt like an invigotation to her career.
Speaking of invigoration— the crowd got rowdy during Glause’s run and when her win was announced inside the Lazy E. Glause noted that the Utah barrel racing community is well-represented at the Oklahoma event, which Glause says is one she is grateful for thanks to the massive amounts of added money throughout the week.
Although she’s on the mountaintop today, the barrel racing veteran also offered some advice for those who may be riding the emotional wave of seasoning their derby horses in the open, derby or rodeo spheres.
“Don’t get discouraged,” Stacy Glause said. “It can be such a rollercoaster. If you’ve got (a horse) that’s nice enough to haul, take the good with the bad and try to focus on the good stuff. Just keep hauling.”
