RSR Closing Time and Justin Wright picked up the NSHA Open Derby Championship on Sunday, August 23, 2026, at the NSHA Pre-Futurity with a composite score of 662.5, earning $24,284 for owners Reagan and Michelle Horton of Rayshell Ranch.
For everyone involved, the win was what they’d been waiting for. According to Wright, the stallion known as “Sioux” had been knocking on the door of a derby victory all year, and things came together in Las Vegas with a score of 220.5 in the reining, 220 in the herd and 222 down the fence.
The win pushes the five-year-old stallion’s lifetime earnings to $127,128 and delivers the first major aged-event title for Ray Shell Ranch.
“I couldn’t wait to get back to Texas and give that derby buckle to Reagan,” Wright said.
The Making of a Derby Champion
But the path to victory wasn’t a straight one. Originally trained by Erin Taormino, Sioux needed surgery on a broken splint bone that was aggravating his suspensory ligament as a 4-year-old. It wasn’t guaranteed he’d make a full, timely recovery, but Michelle Horton had a gut feeling they needed to see him through it.
After roughly a year off, Sioux was back showing with Wright in the saddle, and they caught a check at the 2026 NRCHA Celebration of Champions.
“He’s been really consistent,” Wright said. “He’s been in the money and made the finals everywhere I’ve gone this year with him, but this is his first win.”
Sired by $29 million stallion Stevie Rey Von and out of A Shiner Named Sioux mare Lillys Bugatti, Wright describes Sioux as big-bodied with an even temperament—an important piece of the puzzle when a young horse misses a year of trips into the show pen.
The weight of the Horton’s choice to move Sioux to Wright’s barn doesn’t rest lightly on him.
“It’s been a short relationship so far, but they feel like family already,” Wright said. “They’re great people that are raising equally as great horses.”
A Legacy that Stretches From Strawn Valley to Ray Shell Ranch
Ray Shell Ranch’s roots go back further than their cow horse résumé suggests. Reagan’s father, Don Horton founded Strawn Valley Ranch in 1998.
Don ran it as a cutting horse operation for more than a decade, standing stallions including Dual Smart Rey, until the demands of his home-building business, D.R. Horton, caught up with the ranch.
“He did that until about 2012,” Michelle said. “He knew he couldn’t devote as much time as he’d like. So he decided it was time to close that chapter.”
A horse dispersal in 2013 left the Strawn ranch empty.
The next chapter began nearly a decade later when the Horton’s daughter, Madeline, began to show interest in the cow horse.
“I think one of the first shows we went to watch was The World’s Greatest,” Michelle said. “It was so exciting. We got real fired up about it. The people were amazing and we really enjoyed the industry.”
In 2023, the Hortons sold their horse property in Weatherford and moved everything back to the original Strawn Valley Ranch grounds. In 2024, they began sponsoring NRCHA events, too, becoming co-title sponsors of the World’s Greatest Horseman alongside Western Bloodstock.
More than 25 years after Don Horton first put up a barn in Strawn, the ranch is back in business under a new name, a new discipline and a new generation. And as of last week, a champion to show for it.
“RSR Closing Time is the first horse that’s put us on the map as far as winning goes,” Michelle said.
And that first taste of success is only further fueling the Ray Shell Ranch. With a broodmare band consisting of eight mares, the team is expecting 18 foals in 2027, with breeding guidance from AQHA Hall of Fame Inductee Frank Merrill.
For a family with more than 25 years of Western performance horse history and a fresh name, the derby win feels like an affirmation of their direction. The Rey Shell Ranch team plans to stand Sioux in 2027, and allow the stallion to continue showing them what he’s made of.