Jay Starnes and It’s Best To Be Hot Win Equine Chronicle Masters 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure

By: Brittany Bevis

To cap off a remarkable Congress for the Starnes Quarter Horse Team, Jay Starnes and It’s Best To Be Hot claimed the crowning glory of the three-week long event, the Equine Chronicle Masters 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure Champion title. Tonight, Starnes was in the saddle for Gavin and Rebecca Rawlings of Australia, who received a whopping $50,000 check for their horse’s big win.

Starnes describes this beautiful, black filly as being very trainable with an equally excellent lope and trot in both directions.

“She’s a very nice filly,” Starnes says. “She’s been pretty easy to train. We’ve had a few ups and downs, but, for the most part, it’s been pretty good. She showed great tonight, and I was thrilled with that part of it.”

“Julie” is by RL Best of Sudden and out of One Hot Mouse. She was purchased by the Rawlings family at the Reichert Celebration last year. Following the show, Starnes took the then yearling home to see about starting her as a two-year-old western pleasure prospect. It didn’t take long for him to determine that his new customers had selected a very special animal.

“She’s great-legged,” he says. “She can lope and trot. She can do both gears. It’s a big-time turnaround for them. To come to your first Congress and have your little girl win the 11 and Under and then have a Masters winner… I think that’s a big turnaround. I’m happy for them. They deserve it.”

Next year, Starnes plans to show Julie in 3-year-old futurity events, and hopefully, she will have a future in non-pro competition with either Rebecca or Abbey Rawlings in the saddle. When asked how he feels following his horse’s win tonight, Gavin Rawlings had one word to say, “relieved.”

“I was relieved that for this time around we actually made the warmup pen,” he says. “It’s a marked improvement from the last time we were in the States. Altogether it was great, but the whole deal is great. There is no comparison. What more could you ask for?”

His wife Rebecca adds, “Without Jay and Kristy, none of this would be possible.”

When the Masters concluded at 10 pm this evening, the time was already 11 am on Sunday morning in Australia. Despite the time difference, Rawlings’s friends and family stayed glued to their computer screens to root on their favorite horse.

“They’re all on the live feed,” Gavin says. “The live feed has gone mad [with Australians].

Equine Chronicle Masters 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure–

1-It’s Best To Be Hot/Jay Starnes

2-Bestseatnthehouse/Rusty Green

3-Cool Lookin Moonie/Brian Cox

4-Lope Out The Doubt/Shane Dowdy

5-Lindsay Lopin/Kenny Lakins

6-Completly Lazy/Ty Hornick

7-RR Certain Blessing/Angie Cannizzaro

8-Shes Blazing Cool/Gil Galyean

9-Gotta Knapp For That/Pat Heeley

10-I Dance In The Dark/Shane Pope

11-Vital N Vestment/Cole Baker

12-Somekind of Lazy/Amanda Jackson

13-Rock County Kid/Carl Yamber

14-She Sure Is Hot/Jamie Hartman

15-You Can Kiss This/Kristin Klimmek