Cutting

Matt Gaines Tops $5 Million

Written by Mark Thompson

Six days before his 39th birthday, on Jan. 9 at the Abilene Spectacular Cutting, Matt Gaines became the third person to earn more than $5 million riding cutting horses.

That’s not bad for someone who initially attempted to launch a business career, at the urging of his parents, but then discovered he had to follow his heart.

“I never would have thought when I started training horses that I would have been able to win this amount of money at this time in my career,’’ said Gaines, a 1992 Tarleton State University graduate. He spent five years in college classrooms, then attempted to start a business career his first year out of school.

After he tried something else, working for the horse accessories company Cowboy Tack for nearly a year, Gaines knew for sure he just had to take a shot at horse training.

“I tried something different, I wasn’t happy, and I decided that I had to give it a try,’’ Gaines said. “If I wasn’t good enough, I’d know and I’d be able to go on and do something else and not worry about it any more.’’

There was no need to worry. The consistent Weatherford, Texas, trainer headed to Abilene $34,363 short of the $5 million mark, after earning no less than $213,000 and topping $500,000 five of 10 years, between 1998 and 2007. At ages 29-38, from 1998 through Jan. 9, 2008, he amassed $4,451,033 in Equi-Stat cutting earnings.

During the 5/6-Year-Old Open finals in Abilene, Gaines and Im Countin Checks, a 6-year-old stallion now owned by Kyle Manion, Aubrey Texas, marked a 221 to earn an $18,125 Champion’s check. Gaines also placed fourth and fifth in the same event with Clearcut Cat, a 5-year-old stallion, and Little Pepto Patti, a 6-year-old mare, to earn $10,125 and $9,316. He also earned $2,415 by winning the second go with a 224 on Im Countin Checks, a career winner of $337,681. The stallion, one of Gaines’ top open horses the past three years, is by Smart Lil Ricochet out of Autumn Boon by Dual Pep.

By earning $41,792 in Abilene, Gaines, who turns 39 on Monday, Jan. 14, boosted his career earnings to $5,007,429, according to Equi-Stat figures.

Equi-Stat, a division of Cowboy Publishing Company, credits Gaines with some incentive money not reflected in National Cutting Association figures. Gaines started 2008 with $4,965,637 in Equi-Stat earnings and $4,581,333 in NCHA money. Bill Freeman and Phil Rapp were the first two cutters to top $5 million in Equi-Stat earnings.

“God has blessed me and I think gave me a talent to do this,” Gaines said. “He’s given me great horses and a lot of great people to work with. Without those, you don’t win anything.’’
    While his father, Byers, Texas, horse trainer Dick Gaines, and his mother, Barbara, tried to guide him toward a different career, they understood his passion for horses. They thought that he might earn money elsewhere and then perhaps compete as a non-pro.

“They wanted me to get a college degree and have something to fall back on,’’ Gaines said. A year after he graduated from college and gave the business world a try, Gaines had a talk with his father again. “He said, ‘You’ve got a degree. Try it [training horses].’ They just wanted me to have all my bases covered.’’

Gaines and his wife, Tara, work together. They own a 151-acre facility just south of Weatherford, Texas, that Matt has utilized as a horse-training base since the late 1990s. Matt also has a daughter, Lauren, 15, and a son, Garrett, 12, from a prior marriage.

“I know now that this is what I’m supposed to do,’’ Gaines said. “I love being on the back of a horse. It’s where I feel at home. It’s where I’m comfortable.”