Dark Horse Barrel Incentive Rules
Horse Eligibility
-
A registered horse of any age is eligible if the contributing stallion is ineligible for any barrel stallion incentives that have 25 or more enrolled stallions in their program. For example, my horse was sired by a Pink Buckle stallion, my horse is therefore ineligible for the Dark Horse Barrel Incentive. My 2nd horse was sired by a stallion in no stallion incentives; therefore my 2nd horse is eligible for the Dark Horse Barrel Incentive. My 3rd horse was sired by a stallion in one incentive that only has 15 nominated stallions, therefore my 3rd horse is eligible for the Dark Horse Barrel Incentive
Current incentives that are included in the parameters of 25 or more enrolled stallions are…
5 State Breeders Futurity
Barrel Breeders Incentive
BRIF
Cornhusker Incentive
Cowboy State Stallions
Full House Incentive
Gold Buckle
Gridiron
Homegrown Classic Stallions
Pro Elite Stallion Incentive (PESI)
Select Stallion Stakes
Triple Crown 100
The Diamond Classic
Top Shelf Breeders
Texas Quarter Horse Association Incentive
If your horse was sired by a stallion that is enrolled in any of the above listed incentives, it is ineligible for the Dark Horse Barrel Incentive. Please use our collaborative stallion search engine to determine ineligibility of your horse. We update this search engine every year.
Any incentives not included on this list are subject to the rule of 25 or more enrolled stallions when nominating a horse. Future stallion incentives will umbrella under the 25 or more stallions enrollment as well.
The stallion list is available on the website to cross reference for ineligibility. This list will be updated and confirmed by Jan 1st of the competition year.
-
Any grade horse of any age is eligible. A current Coggins, letter from the veterinarian, or past barrel racing result showing the matching nominating name only will be uploaded upon nomination.
-
Registered horses are required to upload registration papers.
-
A side profile picture is required to be uploaded of every nominated horse.
-
Anyone caught submitting false documents or running any other horse than the nominated horse, will be banned permanently from Dark Horse Barrel Incentive, and will forfeit any earnings and their nomination fee.
Nominating
-
The nomination period is Jan 1-Dec 31. Nominations are due by Jan 31st of the nominating year. You can nominate after Jan 31st with a $50 late fee.
-
It is one nomination per horse. A rider can nominate as many horses as they would like.
-
You are allowed to change the horse you have nominated for the nomination period throughout the year, as long as the new horse falls under the eligibility guidelines. There is a $25 fee for each changing of a nominated horse. We provide this to help those that experience injuries and/or selling or buying of horses throughout the year. A form will be available online to complete and email to our office.
-
The nomination fee is $200 per horse per nomination year. This fee will make you eligible for all annual tour sidepot events hosted by Dark Horse Barrel Incentive and their partnering producers. There will be no extra entry fee for the added money sidepot events that are apart of the annual tour.
-
The nomination form is online and must be completed and paid in full online before eligibility can start. It is up to the owner/rider to complete the form(s) to make sure all information is correct and up to date at all times for the purpose of mailing information and checks. The account owner of the nominated horse is who we will mail all checks to, regardless of who was listed as the rider.
-
Nominations must be done 10 days prior to an event if you complete it after the Jan 31st due date.
-
Required Documentation
-
Registered Horse​
-
Registration papers​
-
Side profile picture of horse
-
-
Grade Horse
-
Side profile picture of horse​
-
Only ONE of the following is required.
-
Current Coggins
-
Letter from Vet stating they have only known the horse to be grade. (Found in FORMS tab)
-
Past race results with name matching nominating name.
-
-
​
Entering
-
Entries will be submitted online only through your account you created with our website. If your nomination is up to date, you will be eligible to enter.
-
Sidepots will be advertised online with a link to enter your nominated horse and updated regularly to show any increase in payout.
-
There is no additional entry fee for the 4-10 annual tour sidepots hosted through nomination funds. Once you enter there will be no additional payment. However, we may add extra sidepots outside of the annual tour, with an entry fee. These will only be at races that you must qualify for and that are not open to the public. These races will be advertised separately and these funds will not come from nomination money, but sponsorship money. You will still enter those specific races online if they become available.
-
Please make sure your W-9 is uploaded each year once you start entering.
-
We will post a list of entries prior to each race for confirmation.
-
There will be an entry opening and closing period for the sidepot entry for each race.
​
Payouts
-
Sidepot events will be audited at the completion of each race and results will be posted on the website the following week of the race. Checks will be mailed to the address on file. A W9 must be completed and uploaded before any winnings can be mailed.
-
Sidepot events with 200 or less runners will be 4D .5 split equal payout. Sidepot events with 201 or more runners will be 5D .5 split equal payout.
-
Sidepot money will be determined by the number of memberships on Jan 31st of the nominating year. If nominations increase throughout the year by 25%, we will add another sidepot or increase already established sidepots throughout the year. This will be at the discretion of the board members of DHBI.
-
A W-9 must be on file for the year before you will be mailed a check. It is your responsibility to submit this form each year.
-
Any checks not cashed after 120 days will be forfeited and the money will roll over to next year’s sidepots.
-
Any checks not mailed at the end of the year due to no W-9 on file will be forfeited and will roll over to the next year’s sidepots.
-
If there is an event that wishes to host a sidepot that is a qualifying event and not open to everybody to enter, we may consider a sidepot with entry fee attached for those that wish to compete in a sidepot at those events. Examples would be, Bonus Race Finals, BBR world finals, Arkansas Elite. These races are not open to everyone and will not be eligible for 4-10 pre-scheduled tour sidepots that come from nomination funds. We will try our best to find funds from sponsors to host such a sidepot if there is interest.
-
All checks will be issued to the account owner on file, not the rider. In most cases, the rider and account owner will be the same.
​
Minimum payout with minimum of 50 Nominations for the year
*50 yearly nominations is required to host Dark Horse Barrel Incentive every year and have minimum of 4 tour sidepots.
4-10 tour sidepots at $2500 payout-4D equal payout
​
​4D payout-$1250 per division
1st place-$250
2nd place-$185
3rd place-$125
4th place-$65
​
*This will be subject to increase if nominations increase for the inaugural year. Below are more examples of an increased payout.
​​
Proposed Payout with a minimum of 250 nominations
8 tour sidepots at $5000 payout
4D payout-$1250 per division
1st place-$500
2nd place-$375
3rd place-$250
4th place-$125
5D payout-$1000 per division
1st place-$400
2nd place-$300
3rd place-$200
4th place-$100
Proposed payout with 500 or more yearly nominations
8 tour sidepots at $10,000 payout each
​
4D payout-$2500/Division
1st place-$1000
2nd place-$750
3rd place-$500
4th place-$250
​
5D payout-$2000/Division
1st place-$800
2nd place-$600
3rd place-$400
4th place-$200
​
or
10 tour sidepots at $8000 payout each
4D payout $2000/Division
1st place-$800
2nd place-$600
3rd place-$400
4th place-$200
​
5D payout-$1600/Division
1st place-$640
2nd place-$480
3rd place-$320
4th place-$160​
​​​
Competition Rules
-
Rules of the arena and competing will follow suit of the partnering producer for each event. It is up to the competitor to read and follow the rules at each separate event.
-
A ‘No time” as a result of a down barrel will be a “no time” in the sidepot payout.
-
Disqualification of a runner at an event is a disqualification in the sidepot payout.
-
Disqualification can be issued when auditing or in post audited results, if the horse was found to be ineligible due to falsification of documentation or eligibility was not met 10 days prior to the event.
-
If there is a sensitive situation that arises on eligibility or disqualification outside the parameters of these rules, a board meeting will be held and a vote will be issued.
Event Cancelation and Refunds
-
In the event of cancelation of a race that is hosted with a Dark Horse Sidepot, the Dark Horse sidepot funds will be held for the rescheduled date. If there is no rescheduled date and the event will not proceed, the sidepot money will be dispersed equally at the remaining events of the year. If there are no more events to disperse the money to, the funds will be held over till the next competition year and added as additional sidepot money.
-
There are no refunds for nominations once they are paid in. You can, however, do a horse change for a fee in place of an originally nominated horse. Please refer to the nomination rules.
Ownership of the horse
-
The account owner of the horse is the nominator of the horse. All checks will be made out to the account owner, not the rider. In most cases, the owner and rider will be the same. There will be a box on the entry of each sidepot to notate if the owner is different from the rider.
-
The account owner will be responsible for keeping all information up to date.
-
If ownership of a nominated horse changes throughout the competition year, it is the responsibility of the previous owner to notify the office as to the sale or change of hands of the nominated horse.
-
The new owner is to complete the ownership change form. The new owner will pay a $25 ownership change fee.
-
When entering a sidepot, if the rider is not the same as the owner, it must be clarified on the entry form. This helps when auditing results and making sure the owner gets paid for their nominated horse.
​
Producer Information
Producer Application Rules
-
There will be 4-10 annual sidepots for the year that make up the 'tour". Dark Horse prides itself on having all sidepots available to its nominators that are all within a reasonable hauling distance from each other at this time. This maximizes the opportunities to compete under your nomination for the year. At this time, Dark Horse sidepots will be focused in the south central area of the US, as the incentive grows we may implement more sidepots in other areas each year.
-
Race locations allowed for application are Oklahoma, North Texas, North Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, South Kansas, or a reasonable distance from those borders.
-
We request races submitted for sidepot approval have a minimum of $1000 added to the open.​
-
-
Races that are not open to the public and require certain qualifications to compete at will not be considered for the 4-10 annual tour sidepots that come from nomination funds. However, if you want to submit such an event, we will try our best to find sponsorship money for the added sidepot at that event and there will be entry fee for this sidepot, as it will not be apart of the prescheduled annual tour sidepots, which come from nomination funds. We encourage all producers to apply thier events early so we can work on finding the extra money needed to host additional sidepots for these exclusive races.
-
A race can be submitted for consideration at any time. However, the sidepot schedule will be posted by Dec 1 prior to the competition year, so making sure you submit prior to that is preferred. Any races submitted they do not reach approval will not be required to pay any application fees. *Inaugural year there is no fee to apply
-
Dark Horse Barrel Incentive reserves the right to change the schedule at any point in time if necessary and will notify the producer immediately of such changes and of the circumstances of the change. Any application money will be refunded if necessary as well.
-
-
The annual tour side pot schedule for the upcoming year will be finalized by Dec 1 of the preceding year. For example, 2025 schedule will be complete by Dec 1, 2024 and advertised to the public, so potential nominators know what sidepots they are nominating for. We can choose to add additional sidepots throughout the year as nominations increase and funds are available.
-
We reserve the right to cancel a sidepot due to severely low nomination numbers. If so, a new sidepot will be added to the year or the sidepot money will be split up with the remaining events of the year. Any producer application fees paid in will be refunded.
-
Producers submitting an application must agree to advertise the sidepot in a professional manner and use the logo provided in posts or advertisements regarding the event the sidepot will be hosted at.
-
Producers must agree to submit race results by the following Wednesday of the hosted event. Results must include the horse’s name since the incentive is based on an eligible nomination by horse. Submit to darkhorsebarrelincentive@gmail.com
-
The prescheduled 4-10 annual tour sidepots will be a minimum of $2500 with no extra entry fee required past the yearly nomination of $200 by the nominator/competitor. 4D/5D half second splits based on number of entries in the sidepot. Equal payout. Please see the payout schedule in the rules under payout. The sidepot at each event can increase to a maximum of $10,000 depending on the amount of nominations received throughout the year. We will notify producers of an increase in added money and request they advertise accordingly.
-
Producers must agree to advertise the link provided for nominators to sign up for the sidepot through our website. Producers must agree to advertise the link for nominations for eligible horses that wish to enter the sidepot but have not yet nominated. All of these will be provided via email upon approval.
-
Producers will not handle any paperwork or money. It will all be done online by the nominator by our system. Producers will only apply for approval and advertise the sidepot appropriately and submit results from each sidepot approved in a timely manner. We hope that working with us will increase your entry numbers at each event and provide good exposure for the producers through this program. We look forward to working with many of the great producers hosting races in our area!