Golden Coins dazzled a packed house at the South Point Arena & Equestrian Center with Kole Price on board to rewrite the NRHA (National Reining Horse Association )record books with a new highest score in reining history, a 237.5 to win The Run For A Million and $500,000.
Kole Price and Golden Coins delivered a performance for the history books at the 2026 The Run For A Million, marking a 237.5 to establish a new NRHA record for the highest marked run and earn the event’s $500,000 championship.
“It felt very peaceful, very quiet out there. I’ve gone through the run so many times in my head that I had an idea of what it was going to feel like. I picked my song, because it’s got a lot of rhythm to it, and I wrote the word ‘flow’ on my hand,” Price said. “This horse has so much pattern flow to him and rhythm, and that’s what I wanted to execute with that horse was to have a beautiful pattern flow. He was spot-on,” said Kole who set
On a night defined by exceptional performances, Price and Golden Coins (Spooks Gotta Gun x Electric Cha Ching), a 2020 AQHA/APHA stallion owned by Coin Toss LLC, bred and nominated by Silver Spurs Equine, rose above a field that pushed the limits of the sport from beginning to end. “I kind of expected tonight that somebody was going to break the record. They asked me in an interview this week what it would take to win, and I said, ‘A score nobody’s seen yet.’ I had the mentality of not worrying about beating everybody else, just don’t beat yourself,” he added.
Andrea Fappani & Alpha Viking – Photo NRHA Media
The tone was set early. Fappani and Alpha Viking (Gunnatrashya x Rock It With Sass) owned by Alpha Quarter Horses, LLC and Vargo Quarter Horses LLC bred and nominated by Alpha Quarter Horses, LLC entered the arena in the first set and posted a 234, immediately establishing the standard for the riders still to come. The pair arrived in Las Vegas fresh off their Level 4 Open Derby Championship at the 2026 6666 NRHA Derby presented by Markel, where their 236 came within just half a point of Fappani’s own longstanding record. But in Las Vegas, 234 wouldn’t remain at the top for long.
Gabriel Borges & Spooks Gotta Ice – Photo NRHA Media
In the second set, NRHA Professional Gabriel Borges and Spooks Gotta Ice (SG Frozen Enterprize x Spooks Gotta Lady) owned by nominator Kathy Page and bred by Ubere Agropecuaria Eireli, turned in a 236.5—matching the NRHA record Fappani and Custom Legend had established nearly two decades earlier. “It was a dream becoming reality; we love reining and we dream about scores like this and it was one of my dreams,” said Borges. “My horse was so good; he was with me, listening, and communicating with me perfectly. In the first stop and back, his mind was with me, and was like ‘OK let’s do this.’ In a big event like this, I was expecting to peform well, but I knew that at this show could break history in scores and that’s what happened.”
Borges and Spooks Gotta Ice finished reserve with their record-matching 236.5 to earn $95,000, while Fappani and Alpha Viking’s 234 held for third and $85,000. “I sat down with Kole to talk about his incredible result and what went into that run, and the road that took him from leaving home at 16 to becoming one of the top trainers in our industry,” said Fappani after the event. “Kole has built his career the hard way…working for great horsemen, putting in the years, building Price Performance Horses with Kelsey, and proving himself at the highest level. This one was pretty personal for me. That 237.5 broke the record I had held for 19 years. Records are made to be broken, and watching Kole put together that kind of run on that stage was something special.” Hear more about Fappani and Price’s talk, with special guest Taylor Sheridan, at Along For The Ride, episode 53 here.
Ben Beckett and Custom Made Whizkey (Whizkey N Diamonds x Customized My Gun) owned by Rinck Heule bred by McQuay Stables Inc. and nominated by Oswaldo Chazaro Koi, and Mirko Midili and Luk Skywalker (Maytheforcebewhizyou x RS Athena Jac) owned by Thiago Boechat and U.S. Nominator Janice Laney, bred by EU nominator Caracciolo/Lukacs, owners of the dam, tied for fourth with scores of 231 and earned $75,000 each.
“This year’s The Run for a Million is one for the ages. Even a great screen writer couldn’t have scripted a better collection of great reiners, great stories, and a magical ending,” said Billy Smith, NRHA Commissioner. The depth of the leaderboard made the night remarkable. Its winning score made it historic. But perhaps the bigger story is what performances like these say about reining today.
Full results here
Sixty years after the NRHA was formed in 1966, the trajectory of reining continues upward. Those scores are not happening in isolation. They are the product of an industry that has spent generations breeding, nominating, raising, developing and training increasingly exceptional equine athletes. From the breeders making carefully considered crosses years before a horse ever enters a show pen, to the nominators investing in their future, to the owners, trainers and teams responsible for developing their potential, the quality of today’s reining horse is second to none. The result is a sport operating at an unprecedented level. The horses are more talented, the competition is deeper and performances once considered extraordinary are increasingly being challenged by a new generation of horses and horsemen. There may be no better time to see that progression than 2026.
This fall, NRHA will celebrate another milestone when the Foals R Us NRHA Futurity® returns to Oklahoma City for its 60th anniversary. For six decades, the Futurity has provided the first major stage for generations of horses that would go on to shape the sport. As NRHA prepares to celebrate that history, the performances unfolding in show pens today offer a glimpse at just how far reining has come—and where it may be headed next. For 19 years, generations of the sport’s best horses and riders chased 236.5. In 2026, they caught it. Then they passed it.
Reported by International Horse Press / Simona Diale
