2025-01-29

 Hello everyone! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and New Years. I have feelings about New Years and resolutions but I probably shouldn't share them.....I was called a big meanie a lot last year from the pearl clutching Karens. Meh, here it goes...

If you are an idiot that made terrible decisions in 2024 the clock striking midnight on January 1st will not miraculously give you a frontal lobotomy and turn you into life coaching, decision making genius. There I said it. Change comes with time and self-reflection not with 3 gallons of champagne, a dress that looks like a fishing lure and flashing 2025 glasses. Yeah, I know, everyone likes a fishing lure.

Enough of my nonsense...Let's talk about barrel racing stuff.

I mailed out 1099's to all of you that won over $600 at our race in 2024. If you did not receive yours or if it has any errors please let me know and I will send a duplicate copy or a revision. Congratulations to all of you that won money with us!

I am putting together a rough timeline for 2025 and this is what I have so far...
**If you would like to sponsor $1000 or more and be eligible for early entry, early move in and stall selection I will need your check and logo by June 20th. For every $1000 donation you can pre-enter 2 horses. That can be 2 of your horses or one for you and one for a buddy. This is a sponsorship, and you will still have to pay entry fees but you are guaranteed a spot in the race. Please mail sponsorship checks to Because of Bailey 

9660 S Parko Ct 

Pahrump, NV 89048

**Open entries will be on July 12th at 12pm central time on www.saddlebook.com. We will have the payment plan option where you can pay half on the 12th and final payments must by paid by August 16th at 12pm central time or you will be removed from the race.
**Cancelations with a full refund, minus your $50 deposit, can be issued until August 22nd at 8am central time. You do not need a vet out, just let me know before that date. After August 22nd there are no refunds.
**We are planning a high stakes race on Thursday evening. We will limit that race to 100 horses and will open entries on that one July 19th. This will be a 90% payback and some special prizes. Everyone that enters the high stakes race will be put into a drawing and the winner will get their open entry fees back.
**The Pink Buckle, Ruby Buckle and Young Guns Double Down sidepot will be a carry over from the open race on Friday. Entry information will be updated when we get closer to entry day.

Last year, among the terrible things that were said about me, one of them was that I am a control freak and insist on assigning stalls myself when Saddlebook could do it. I promise you that if you could go pick your own stalls on Saddlebook, we would have done that. I can post your stall assignments after I finish them but the program does not allow you to pick your own stalls. I have looked into some other software that would allow you to do that so everyone could go pick their own spots and free up some time for me but for the following reasons I just cannot justify it.

1) It will increase the cost of the already expensive stalls 5-10%. I am a contestant too and I feel like all the fees are just getting crazy. I really don't want to push any more expense on all of you. We just appreciate that you all come spend Labor Day with us.
2) The programs that I have looked in to cannot guarantee that they will not crash when all of you log in to pick stalls. You all patiently stuck with us last year over several crashes with a new entry system and I really don't want to do that to anyone again.
3) It would cause you to have to book three different things. Your hotel on one site, entries on another and stalls on a third. It seems like too much to me when we can just keep entries and stalls on one payment platform.

As much as we are dedicated to giving as much money as we can to families that need it we are also dedicated to our amazing contestants and we will save you some money if we can.

I would like to invite any family that we have helped over the years to be our guests on Friday August 29th. We would love to give your family a barn tour and buy you lunch. We would also love to honor all of you in the arena. If you are one of those families and would like to participate in this day please email me at becauseofbailey@yahoo.com so we can get a count for lunch and have some horses available for you to meet.

Has January been extra long for anyone else? I just feel like maybe they snuck a few extra weeks in there while I wasn't looking. Come on February!  

Hello Everyone! I hope you all survived Thanksgiving and are gearing up to celebrate Christmas. I was at a friends house two weeks before Thanksgiving and I promise her house looked like Hobby Lobby threw up all over the inside of it. The woman had FIVE Christmas trees! Have you seen those cute little Christmas villages? She has so many it's more like a city block. She had to buy a new table to display all of them. I had never heard of flocking a tree but now I know. Her bathrooms weren't neglected either. I was not aware of snowman toilet paper until now. I'm not 100% sure she does meth but there are signs...

I have gone out to the storage shed 4 times and looked at my plastic storage boxes full of decorations and each time I tell myself that I will get to it tomorrow. That is a big, fat lie that I have on repeat. 

I want all of you to know that two weeks ago I mailed out the check that put us at $102,000 in donations for this year. In two years we have given away $183,600! When I say we I mean all of us as a group. Anyone that entered the race, bought a raffle ticket or t-shirt, bid on a raffle item, entered the virtual race or donated to the cause helped make this happen! Thank you all for carrying on Bailey's legacy and helping families in some of the worst times of their lives.

I was re-arranging boxes from the race and came across one labeled "Misc". Inside was more fireball than I have ever seen! Some of you all are very funny people. There were also some very thoughtful gifts and cards in there and I cannot tell you all how much we appreciate you! The contestants of BB4B are a special group and I am honored to share space with you every Labor Day!

I have some exciting things coming up in 2025. Our dates are August 29th-31st. This year will be our 15th anniversary and we will be adding $25,000 per day to the open! We were approached by several more sponsors this year and will be adding some amazing prizes.

 We were contacted by Pink Buckle/Ruby Buckle/Young Guns and we will be one of 20 Double Down races in the United States next year! I will have the entry details after the first of the year but this is an awesome incentive. Here is what I have so far . . .

The Double Down program is a way for Pink Buckle, Ruby Buckle and Young Guns League nominated horses to win money regionally in Open 4D races. 

HOW IT WORKS

Go to www.pinkbuckle.com OR www.therubybuckle.com OR www.younggunsleague.com to enter a Double Down race. Pay (1) DD entry fee (it will match the host race's OPEN ENTRY FEE). Enter the host race, compete and win money in the event's OPEN RACE. Whatever you win in the OPEN RACE, we will match.

Big things are coming next year my friends! After I get 1099's out in January I will release entry and sponsor information for next year. I am setting our donation goal at $125,000 for 2025! I hope you all have an amazing Christmas filled with family and love and that everyone checks the weight of their turkey before putting it in the deep fryer...