Thank you for visiting Sam Smith Reining Horses News page. Below you will find some press releases about Kelle Smith. We hope you enjoy this information.

Kelle pictured on JD Conquistador Anna,
2006 NRHA Non Pro Futurity Champion, cover of January 2007 NRHA Reiner.

12.1.2006 - Kelle Smith Wins Cinch NRHA Non Pro Futurity

To see the article about Kelle Smith as seen in the NRHA Reiner click here

Carrying the “Ladies Night” theme a step further — Kelle Smith won the Cinch NRHA $60,000 added Non Pro Futurity on JD Conquista Anna, a daughter of Conquistador
Whiz and out of Hollywood Anna. This was Smith’s second Non Pro Futurity win; she also won the event in 2003 on See Ya At Seven. George Shifrin, owner of Conquistador Whiz, earned $6,204.70 in NRHA Sire & Dam Sire Award money as the owner of the sire of the Cinch NRHA Non Pro Futurity Champion.

12.1.2006 - Dreams Do Come True

To see the article about Kelle Smith as seen in the NRHA Reiner click here

Sometimes, dreams do come true. For Kelle Smith and her mom, Joyce Chamberlain, 2003 was a bittersweet year. Kelle won the NRHA Non Pro Futurity on See Ya At Seven (Hollywood Eighty Six X Pure Lil Peppy). Her mom was able to be there and see the win, but the palomino gelding needed surgery for an injury, and unfortunately never recovered. He later had to be put down.

Kelle emotionally describes how her mom went horse shopping for another Futurity winner and picked out JD Conquista Anna, a yearling filly by Conquistador Whiz out of Hollywood Anna. “Sam and I were shopping for horses, too (at the 2004 NRHA Breeders Showcase Sale), and we were looking at other horses, but Mom liked this one, so we ended up buying her. Since then, Mom’s been all involved with the process. I’ve sent her tapes, like she was an owner.”

Kelle made the 2006 Cinch NRHA Non Pro Finals on both of her entries. Her mom got to the coliseum just before the Finals started. Like many, the unexpected snow storm impeded her progress to OKC and she spent more time than she wanted to in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Kelle wouldn’t even watch the Finals and tried to keep everyone else from watching too. She knew she had a chance, so she kept finding other “stuff” to do while she waited. Kelle had drawn up fifth from the end on Anna. “The worst thing is the waiting. They’re your friends (out there showing), and you want them to do well, but … you cheer for yourself just a little more.”... - To view rest of article click here

2006 - Kelle Smith wins second title in four years with a horse her mother found

To see the article about Kelle Smith as seen in the Quarter Horse News
click here

Two years ago in Oklahoma City, Kelle Smith’s mother, Joyce Chamberlain, went
shopping for a hot new reining prospect during the 2004 NRHA Futurity finals. Kelle and her husband, Belle Center, Ohio, horse trainer Sam Smith, went along.

Chamberlain and the Smiths headed in separate directions for a while, but later Kelle and Sam found her closely inspecting a yearling daughter of Conquistador Whiz out of Actress Anna by Hollywood Jac 86. Kelle Smith and that mare, JD Conquista Anna, won the 2006 NRHA Non-Pro Championship on Dec. 1 in Oklahoma City with a 221 to earn $37,189. “My mom was in the stall petting her,” Kelle Smith said as she recalled the first time she ever saw the smooth-moving mare she now calls “Anna Banana.” “My mom is a little old gray-haired lady. Sam pulled her out of the stall and I warned
her.”

Kelle Smith, a 2003 NRHA Non-Pro Futurity and the 2004 NRHA Non-Pro
Derby winner, and Sam Smith, an Open division winner of about $400,000 since 1988, according to Equi-Stat records, noticed the mare looked pretty good. After checking out her breeding, they both liked her, but Kelle and Sam had not looked at the mare until finding her with Kelle’s mom.

“She is the one that deserves all the credit for this” Kelle said. “If she had not found her at the sale as a yearling, we wouldn’t have bought her. I told her it’s a risk when you buy a yearling. It obviously worked out.” Chamberlain, the mare’s unofficial part owner, nearly missed seeing her daughter ride the mare to their big win. She got stuck in a snowstorm in Tulsa and arrived in Oklahoma City shortly before the Non-Pro finals. “She got here just before it started,” Smith said “She’s just ecstatic about the whole thing.” Smith, of course, was also quite happy about the final-round performance she received from a mare she primarily trained on her own.... - To view rest of article click here

February 2007 - Southwest Horse Trader - The Non-Pro Class

To see the article about Kelle Smith as seen in the SouthWest Horse Trader click here

Kelle Smith, Belle Center, OH, scored a 217.5 in the qualifying go round of the Cinch NRHA Non Pro Futurity to earn a slot in the Finals. She upped the ante with her Finals ride and scored a 221 to earn the championship in the $60,000 added Cinch NRHA Non Pro Futurity aboard her JD Conquista Anna by Conquistador Whiz and out of Hollywood Anna. Kelle, wife of NRHA Professional Sam Smith, is no stranger to the winner's circle in OKC. She won the Non Pro Futurity in 2003 aboard See Ya At Seven.

Kelle's 2003 Press Releases
Kelle's 2004 Press Releases • Kelle's 2005 Press Releases
Kelle's 2006 Press Releases • Kelle's 2007 Press Releases