Golden Coins and Kole Price win the Open Shootout at The Run For A Million

The Run For A Million’s $100,000 Open Shootout served two purposes: Handing out serious cash, and qualifying competitors for the 2025 The Run For A Million Reining Competition. Fifty-five top horsemen and women spun and slid through their patterns on Friday, August 16 at South Point Equestrian Center. EquiStat Elite $1 Million Rider Kole Price and Golden Coins captured the top spot with a 226.5 to take home $28,943 and qualify for next year’s million-dollar event.

Golden Coins (Spooks Gotta Gun x Electric Cha Ching x Jacs Electric Spark) is a 2020 bay stallion bred by Silver Spurs Equine of Purcell, Oklahoma, and owned by Coin Toss LLC in Pilot Point, Texas. Nicknamed, “Zeus”, the stallion has lifetime earnings of just $3,105 before this event, but he’s one of Price’s favorites, in part thanks to his intelligence and sweet nature.

“I think he’s the best horse I’ve got, and I don’t have a lot of derby horses, but I felt like he was strong enough,” Price, of Pilot Point, said. “The horse has always been right on the edge of marking a big score—he just had little bobbles that kept him from doing it. I felt like he was my strongest horse that was just waiting for his moment to shine.”

Preparing for Gold

Price worked with farriers Casey Little and Seth Jordan to find the best shoes for Zeus to suit the footing, which helped him lock in for his stops. He says the horse was ready, so he made sure not to over-prepare him ahead of time.

Price and Zeus were 42nd out, and last before the drag. Consequently, Price made sure to point his horse accurately for the rundowns and stops.

“We ran in good, stopped really good, backed up very clean, turned really good—I was happy with both turnarounds, and got shut off clean,” Price said. “Probably the most exciting part for me was the small slow, after doing big maneuvers. He stood up and loped almost like he was going ‘Hey, watch me guys.’ Once I got that, I pushed him out there pretty good, really wanted to challenge him in his circles because he is probably one of the best circlers I’ve ever had.”

Kole Price on Golden Coins * Photo by Waltenberry

After winning the class and qualifying, Price is excited to be set for the 2025 main event. He said this particular class was special for several reasons.

“Ever since I won The Run For A Million, I’ve tried multiple times to get qualified again, and it’s been gut-wrenching to fail, and fail and fail—it almost seemed like, ‘is this ever going to happen again?’” Price said. “It was very emotional for me after I heard the score, because to finally do it again, and do it in this arena, and do it in the saddle that I won The Run For A Million in, on the pattern that I won The Run For A Million on, that was really special to me.”

Price thanked his wife, the Bell family, and friends for their support.

2025 Qualifiers from the Open Shootout

Riders who qualified for the 2025 Million Dollar Championship and the *horse they rode in the qualifier.

• Kole Price on Golden Coins (Spooks Gotta Gun x Electric Cha Ching x Jacs Electric Spark)
• Casey Deary on Custom Dreams (Magnum Chic Dream x Gunna Be Custom x Colonels Smoking Gun “Gunner”)
• Cade McCutcheon on Varsity Blu (Wimpy Chic x Flo N Blu Boon x Pretty Boy Boon)
• Craig Schmersal on Setting Off To Town (Gunners Tinseltown x Setting Off Smart x Smart Spook)
• Jason Vanlandingham on Best Shine (Shine Chic Shine x Best Stop x Custom Crome)

* Riders do not have to ride the same horse at The Run For A Million that they rode in the qualifier. The rules allow them to ride any horse of their choosing.