Notorious Biggie and Theft By Check, both 2022 sorrel geldings owned by Scott Henderson, topped the Pro Futurity at the 2026 Cinch RSNC World Finals in Fort Worth, Texas, sorting 30 head in 154.11 seconds over three rounds for $8,800, with Brian Buckner of Lorena, Texas, and Tanner Keith of Austinville, Virginia, aboard.
Henderson added another $3,520 by winning the Calcutta on his own team, a $14,080 return that also sent $4,400 to the EQN Sports #18 Rated Youth class payout.
The Pro Futurity is built for young horses making their first real statement, but this year’s win came down to two horses new to their riders and one owner willing to bet on both of them.
Notorious Biggie: Ranch Sorting
Notorious Biggie (Spots Hot x One Sallycat) was in Buckner’s program for less than a week when he loaded him in the trailer for Fort Worth, coming straight from the cutting pen with $30,000 in NCHA earnings.
“He’s so cowy getting him through the herd, it’s starting to click,” Buckner said.
Buckner leaned on what “Biggie” already knew, easing him into sorting while capitalizing on the skills the young horse had learned in the cutting pen.
“The first thing I do is get them used to the gate,” Buckner said. “That’s the most familiar thing to a cutting horse, the left and right motion.”
He alternated slow, technical days with faster ones, then gave the horse a day off to process it all before the World Finals.
“I let him think about it, and he was perfect here,” Buckner said.
Homework Complete: Theft By Check
Both champion mounts belonged to Henderson, a longtime friend of Buckner’s.
“He’s one of my best friends,” Buckner said. “We’ve been friends for 25 years. It’s not just a business. He trusts my opinion on stuff, and I trust his.”
For Keith, that friendship also created an opportunity for him to try out a new horse. He had never sat on Theft By Check (Countin Hot Checks x Ms Peppy Cat) before Buckner offered him the jump-ride.
“I saddled him up, jumped on him, rode him in the warmup pen, and all the homework was done,” Keith said. “They’d been riding him; he was ready.”
With a stacked field in the Pro Futurity, the pair decided to play it safe going into the final round.
“We just kind of took what they gave us,” Keith said. “It ended up laying out to be a good 10 head.”
This win marked the start of a very successful World Finals for Keith, who joined the RSNC’s Top 10 Hall of Fame in the 2025-2026 season, won the Challenge of the Champions Open division, took the All Levels World Champions title partnered with Joel Lesh, and added a runner-up finish in the #14 Ranch Hand class with Nelson Mas along the way. Buckner’s other big moment of the week came when he teamed up with Gage Anderson for a fifth-place finish in the Cinch #13 Gold Shootout.
Pro Futurity — 2026 World Finals Champions
| Champions | Brian Buckner (Lorena, Texas) & Tanner Keith (Austinville, Virginia) |
| Winning run | 154.11 on 30 head |
| First-place payout | $8,800 |
| Total class payout | $17,600 |
Payouts
| Place | Team | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tanner Keith / Brian Buckner | $8,800 |
| 2 | Trever Field / Travis Freiheit | $5,280 |
| 3 | Kody Ward / Matt Stevens | $3,520 |
