Sorrel stallion LBR Hangem ranks No. 1 on QData’s 2026 cutting money-earners list with $264,495 won so far this year, and the young sire is headed to Las Vegas this month as trainer Kenny Platt qualified for the 2026 Run For A Million Cutting Horse Challenge.
The 6-year-old is building a rare double career at the top of the cutting horse industry, racking up major NCHA championships in the show pen while simultaneously filling his book as one of the sport’s most in-demand young sires at Solo Select Horses in Gainesville, Texas.
A Pedigree Built to Fill a Gap
Foaled in 2020, LBR Hangem—known in the barn as “Shotty”—is a 14.1-hand stallion by NCHA Open Futurity Champion Dual Reyish and out of Hangem High Pep, a mare with more than $750,000 in earnings to her credit. Hangem High Pep was sired by Hickorys Indian Pep and is out of a daughter of Freckles Playboy who produced more than $578,000 in earners herself. He is double registered with the AQHA and APHA and tested 7-panel N/N.
That bloodline matters as much for what it isn’t as for what it is. With High Brow Cat, Metallic Cat and Stevie Rey Von daughters now dominating cutting horse pedigrees, breeders have been searching for stallions who can cross cleanly onto those lines without duplicating them.
In a video on the Solo Select page for Shotty, Solo Select CEO Ty Smith says the acquisition of the horse filled a void the operation had been trying to solve since its longtime outcross sire, Woody Be Tuff, aged into his 20s.
Find all the information you need about the Run For A Million here.
Making His Case in the Arena
Platt has piloted LBR Hangem to a growing stack of aged-event hardware, including a Co-Reserve Championship in the 5/6 Open at the 2025 NCHA Super Stakes, where the pair topped a field of 245 horses in the first go-round with a 226. The stallion also claimed the Open Aged Event Championship at the 2024 Abilene Spectacular and a Reserve Championship in the Breeders Invitational 5/6 Open.
His 2025 campaign added a win in the second go of the Open Classic Challenge at the NCHA Summer Spectacular, where a 222 pushed his composite score to 442 atop a 190-horse field.
Platt has praised the stallion’s cow sense and precision, saying Shotty combines those traits with an explosive, calculated style in the pen. LBR Hangem’s climb up QData’s cutting money-earners list has been steady: No. 32 in 2024 with $113,667, No. 14 in 2025 with $197,101, and No. 1 so far in 2026.
That momentum has carried into 2026. LBR Hangem sits atop QData’s cutting money-earners list for the year with $264,495 banked so far, and Solo Select put his lifetime earnings at $352,722 as of early February.
Platt qualified for the 2026 Run For A Million through the Brazos Bash, and the stallion is among the horses he has shown this year en route to Las Vegas, where the Cutting Horse Challenge runs on Thursday, Aug. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Arena at the South Point Arena & Equestrian Center and through the livestream.
A Breeding Debut Unlike Most
LBR Hangem’s first stud season, in 2025, was offered only through frozen semen and ICSI so he could keep showing full time, and it filled almost as fast as it opened. Solo Select founder Melanie Smith has said the demand for the young sire has been overwhelming, crediting the elite group of mares that came with his first foal crop.
That initial book included Show Biz Kitty, the breed’s all-time leading producing dam with more than $2.9 million in progeny earnings, along with Special Nu Baby and That Cattomine.
The 2026 roster added another headline name: Bella Louella, the 2025 Run For A Million Cutting Horse Challenge Champion. Ridden by NCHA Hall of Famer Michael Cooper, she scored a 226 to win that event in Las Vegas last August, earning $50,000 in a single night and lifting her career earnings to $246,295. Sired by Metallic Rebel and out of Catty Louella, she traces back to Louella Again, the NCHA’s leading dam of 2004.
2 Careers, 1 Horse
LBR Hangem continued that dual track in 2026, staying in full-time competition to finish his limited-age event career with Platt while Solo Select offers only limited frozen and ICSI contracts around his show schedule. It’s an unusual arrangement for a stallion this early in his stud career, but it reflects how quickly the industry is recognizing his talents in the performance horse arena and his potential for building standout pedigrees.
For an industry increasingly built around a handful of dominant bloodlines, LBR Hangem’s appeal is straightforward: a proven show-pen record, a pedigree that crosses cleanly on the mares everyone already owns, and a stallion still young enough to keep adding to both résumés at once.
For anyone tuning in on Thursday, keep an eye out for LBR Hangem—you might be witnessing the future of the cutting industry in real time.