In a sport where success is measured one horse at a time, 2025 delivered a rare full-circle moment for cutting trainer Lee Francois—one that traced directly back to a single broodmare Reys Desire.
Last year, Francois finished as the 2025 NCHA Open Reserve World Champion aboard Preachersdrinknagain, while Sistersonthewagon, the horse’s full sister, capped her year as 2025 NCHA Futurity Co-Reserve Champion. Both horses are sired by Metallic Cat. Both were peaking at the same time. And both carry the same dam: Reys Desire.
For Holly and Lee Francois, the symmetry was almost hard to process—not just because of the results, but because Reys Desire herself had once slipped out of their lives entirely.
Reys Desire and Lee Francois’ Genesis
Long before her foals were making headlines, Reys Desire was a young mare in training. Owned by longtime customer and friend Woody Bartlett, she was talented, but no one could have predicted the legacy she would build.
“She’s a Dual Rey mare, so she’s kind of quirky,” Holly said. “We knew she had some cool stuff, but you didn’t see that spark. Nobody ever tried to buy her, which we were thankful for.”
That changed when Lee showed Reys Desire at the 2009 NCHA Futurity.
Lee remembers walking into the arena that first day feeling uneasy. The mare felt hotter than she ever had at home almost like she might “explode.” But he put his hand down, Reys Desire didn’t unravel. She elevated.
“She did stuff that day we’d never seen her do,” Holly said. “She loved that pen.”
Reys Desire went on to finish sixth at the Futurity, earning $77,921, then came back to win the 2010 Open Derby at the Super Stakes for another $112,599. Across her career, she earned roughly $393,765, and with that came attention.
Holly recalls serious money circling the mare: blank-check conversations, half-million-dollar offers, and industry heavyweights wanting her in their barn.
“We were so grateful that Woody never took any of those offers,” Holly said. “We were able to finish out her aged-event career.”
Instead, Bartlett transitioned Reys Desire into the role that would ultimately define her career: broodmare.
A legacy at Risk After Bartlett’s Passing
For years, Reys Desire was a cornerstone of Bartlett’s cutting program. He bred her to One Time Peptos, Spots Hot, and Once In A Blu Boon.
Reys Desire produced in both the cutting and reined cow horse—most recently seeing 2021 Stallion Reality Bytes advance to the NRCHA Tres Osos Derby Open Finals with Boyd Rice.
But when Bartlett passed away in 2021, the breeding program faced a crossroads.
“The family called us and said, ‘We don’t want to run these horses through a sale,’” Holly said. “‘We want you and Lee to private treaty sell everything in the cutting horse program.’”
Holly was quick to credit Milton Scott, who had managed mares and babies in the Bartlett operation for more than two decades, for helping hold that process together.
The dispersal was successful—but emotionally heavy. Reys Desire was sold to Metallic Cat’s owner and industry giant Bobby Patton, and her offspring scattered. A legacy the Francois family had spent years helping build suddenly felt like it might be ending.
“It was really sad to me,” Holly said. “I hated that all the breeding, everything we’d all worked on together, was just kind of done.”
Rekindling of Woody Bartlett’s Flame
But the next chapter didn’t begin with Reys Desire. It began with her son.
In July 2023, Leslyn Wallace of Rock’n Diamond Equine walked up to the fence after Lee showed Preachersdrinknagain and asked to talk about buying him.
“She wanted to buy ‘Preacher’—but she also wanted to keep him in our program,” Holly said. “And she wanted to learn how to show cutting horses herself.”
Wallace, a longtime landman whose business success gave her the freedom to pursue cutting seriously, made her intentions clear from the start.
“She said, ‘I won’t get on that horse for two years,’” Holly recalled. “He stays in your program. He won’t ever leave your house. We’ll be partners.’”
Wallace committed fully—hauling, learning, and immersing herself in the Francois operation. And as the relationship grew, she kept repeating one thing, “You need Reys Desire back.”
Holly was skeptical, but after enough prodding by Wallace, she picked up the phone and called Bobby Patton. To her surprise he was on board with the idea, and agreed to sell Reys Desire to the Francioses for the same price he paid for her.
Reys Desire’s Fairytale Ending
In a poetic twist, both Reys Desire’s 2025 standouts were sired by Metallic Cat. Preachersdrinknagain finished 2025 as the NCHA Open Reserve World Champion and has surpassed $328,000 in earnings, putting him on track for the Hall of Fame. Sistersonthewagon, his full sister, peaked at exactly the right time to earn Co-Reserve Champion honors at the 2025 NCHA Futurity.
Holly is still amazed by how it aligned.
“People started asking if anyone’s ever done that—full siblings, world and futurity in the same year,” Holly said. “There was no plan in that. It’s just how it happened.”
For the Francois family, Reys Desire represents more than numbers or titles. She’s proof that long-term relationships, patience, and belief in a horse can echo far beyond a single career.
“I love that the longevity of the relationship with Woody Bartlett is really what allowed all of this to happen,” Holly said. “And now Leslyn wants to honor that legacy and start her own for her family.”
Now 20, Reys Desire is expecting two embryos via recipient mares with breeding contracts already planned for 2026.
Reys Desire currently lives at Jeremy Barwick’s place and will remain there for the rest of her life, owned and loved by Wallace and the Francois.