Texarkana trainer heads to Las Vegas for one of cutting’s richest nights
Texarkana trainer takes a Vegas stage next week with $250,000 on the line
Bradey Davis went for the risky cow. That is why he is going to Las Vegas.
The 35-year-old Texarkana cutting horse trainer is one of 15 riders in the $250,000 Cutting Horse Challenge at The Run For A Million, the western performance horse event created by “Yellowstone” writer and producer Taylor Sheridan. Davis competes Thursday, Aug. 13, at the South Point Arena and Equestrian Center.
He is the only rider in the field from this part of the country. The rest come mostly from Weatherford, Fort Worth, Ardmore, Oklahoma, and Scottsdale, Arizona.
Davis will show WH Catastrophic, a 2019 stallion by Metallic Cat owned by Wayne Holden. Holden runs a construction company on the Arkansas side of Texarkana and now lives in Fouke. He raised the colt himself.
“He’s gotten so solid as far as consistency and knowing I can count on him,” Davis said. “And he has such a big stop.”
The horse has won close to $200,000 in his career and close to $60,000 this year. He and Davis are sitting second in the world standings in their class, which is decided by money won. A world championship would come with a gold buckle, a saddle and trophies.
“It’s kind of a fun little race between me and another gentleman that lives in Weatherford,” Davis said.
One run, no second chances
Riders earned their spots at the 2025 Brazos Bash, held at Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch near Weatherford. The top 15 first-go scores across all age divisions advanced.
That format changed how Davis rode. Cutters usually stay conservative in a first round because they are trying to make a finals. Davis was not trying to make a finals.
“I told my wife, I said listen, I’m going to go for it, so please don’t be upset if we bomb out in this first round,” he said.
He drew early in the day. The cattle were tough. The scoreboard sat behind the judges’ stand where he could not see it.
“When the buzzer went off I felt like I had a pretty good run,” Davis said. “I knew when the score came up and a lot of people started hollering, I thought, well maybe I did it.”
He marked a 221.5 and finished inside the top 10.
Thursday night in Las Vegas runs the same way. One go. No second round, no averaging. Every rider walks to the herd once.
Learned it from his dad
Davis went professional at 20 and apprenticed roughly five years under his father, Brett Davis, a Hall of Fame trainer and NCHA judge. He started his own business at 25.
He now keeps about 40 horses in training and leases his father’s facility in Red Lick. His wife, Ashley, works for him full time, along with a staff.
Brett Davis has retired from training and buys cattle now, but he still walks over and offers a critique.
“He comes out all the time and pokes his head over the wall and tells me what I need to be working on,” Davis said.
He will also be in Las Vegas. A cutter shows with four helpers, two turnback men who keep the cow in the middle of the pen where the points are, and two herd holders who help pick the cow. Brett Davis has a reputation for reading cattle, and he will be in his son’s corner.
Davis went to Red Lick and graduated from Texas High.
Being based in Texarkana costs him. Most of his shows are four or five hours away, and he said there is a stigma to training outside what the industry considers cowboy country.
“A lot of people want their horses a little bit further out west,” he said. “I’ve kind of embraced it as a challenge. I’m going to make a successful career not being out there.”
There is not much of a cutting scene locally. Holden has competed on the Arkansas side for years and lives in Fouke, but Davis said the sport is concentrated around Weatherford and Fort Worth.
How to watch
Thursday night at South Point opens at 6 p.m. Pacific with the Non Pro Cutting Challenge. The $250,000 Cutting Horse Challenge follows at 7:30 p.m. Pacific, which is 9:30 p.m. here.
The event streams at therunforamillion.com. Thursday night alone costs $29 and all three nights cost $75.
CBS will air a two-hour special from the event Saturday, Aug. 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. That broadcast covers Saturday’s million dollar reining final, not Thursday’s cutting.
Asked what he wanted people back home to know, Davis pointed at the man who bred his horse.
“I’m very pumped for the owner, who’s been doing this for a long time and raises colts,” he said. “He’s a local around there. It’s a pretty neat deal.”