News broke Sept. 8, 2025, that the progeny of Stevie Rey Von earned more than $20 million in lifetime earnings, putting the 2012 stallion in the No. 1 position as the AQHA’s leading sire on the year. For the first time, “Stevie” ranks ahead of his own sire, Metallic Cat.
No. 1 Sire of Money-Earners
In 2024, Stevie Rey Von (Metallic Cat x Miss Ella Rey by Dual Rey) finished the year officially as the second-leading sire with $7.4 million in earnings from a 520-head crop of money-earners behind his sire, 2005’s Metallic Cat (High Brow Cat x Chers Shadow by Peptoboonsmal) 948-head crop with $8.2 million. Whereas Metallic Cat’s get averaged $8,684, the get by Stevie Rey Von averaged almost 40% more at $14,244. The lion’s share of those 2024 dollars for each sire were earned in NCHA cutting arenas, with Metallic Cat progeny totaling $6.1 million and Stevie Rey Von following closely with $5.9 million.
Across all disciplines and with just a few months left in 2025, AQHA’s QData is reporting Stevie Rey Von as the top sire of money-earners with 520 offspring earning $4.6 million and averaging a few dollars shy of $9,000. In the cutting, 389 of his get have earned nearly $4 million this year, averaging $10,257.
In the news
Stevie Rey Von’s name and image proliferated equine news sites last month when industry giants Alvin and Becky Fults of Amarillo, Texas, sold the red roan stallion to Kisha and Jason Itkin.
“Jason Itkin is widely recognized as the top trial lawyer in the country, and Kisha Itkin leads the Theorem Collection, which includes the acclaimed Theorem Vineyards in Napa Valley and Theorem Ranch in Montana” reported The Team Roping Journal when the news broke, adding the couple aims to “bring Western performance horse sports … to the forefront of American consciousness.”
Though “Stevie” is technically a Montana horse now, he remains in Fort Worth, in the care of NCHA Hall of Famer, Run For A Million competitor and $5 Million Rider Beau Galyean’s Stallion Services. Galyean piloted Metallic Cat to NCHA Horse of the Year in 2009 and continued his legacy with the bloodline in 2018 by captaining Stevie Rey Von to championship titles at the West Texas Futurity Open Classic, the Cattleman’s Futurity Open Classic, and the NCHA Super Stakes Open Classic which they won with a score of 231.
Stevie Rey Von
Today, Stevie Rey Von claims close to $421,000 in NCHA earnings, but the same year that Galyean and Stevie set the arena record with their 231, the stallion became an NCHA Hall of Fame Horse by surpassing the $150,000 mark in NCHA Open Championship earnings. Not long after, his foals arrived on the scene.
In his freshman sire year, Stevie’s 2018 daughter Janie Wood (Stevie Rey Von x Junie Wood) went to bat beneath NCHA Hall of Famer and $5 Million Rider John Mitchell for Slate River Ranch to win the 2021 Metallic Cat NCHA Futurity with a record-breaking 230. But another record was set with the win, too.
According to Galyean’s website, Janie Wood’s win makes Stevie “the only living stallion in NCHA Open Futurity history to be an NCHA Open Futurity Champion, sired by an NCHA Open Futurity Champion, and to have sired an NCHA Open Futurity Champion.”
Other notable foals include 2023 NRCHA Teton Ridge Stallion Stakes Champion Von Cali (out of Hotel Cali by Smart Aristocrat), 2024 AQHA World Champion Junior Heeler Pride And Joyy (out of Fun N Fancy Free by Peptoboonsmal) and Crosby Ray Von (out of Ma Crosby by Valiant Hero by First Down Dash), the rope horse that broke the internet this June when she sold for $1.7 million.
As of today, Stevie has sired 1,799 AQHA foals. Of those, 684 are the money-earners who’ve amassed $20,061,451 in total, averaging $29,329.61 per earner.
Foal earnings by event (Sept. 9, 2025)
- Cutting: $16,449,615.54
- Reined Cow Horse: $2,739,873.75
- Roping (All): $743,709.33
- Ranch: $92,962.32
- Reining: $10,820.04
- Barrel: $8,436.32
- Other: $4,400.00
- Pole Bending: $765.90
Incentive eligibility for Stevie Rey Von crop
- NCHA Stallion Foal Incentive
- NRCHA Cow Horse Incentive
- Riata Stallion Incentive
— H&R —
