Fort Worth Grand Champion Steer breaks Stock Show record, sells for $310,000
Onlookers filled the seats, lined the stairways and clustered tight near the windows of the Richard-Bass West Arena.
It’s a day that for as long as history has remembered it has been all about the best of the best. Hundreds of animals, the top of their class, will walk through here today to sell at the Fort Worth Stock Syndicate’s Junior Sale of Champions.
But before them comes the most anticipated, the Grand Champion Steer.
At the mouth of the arena dripping with suspense, cowboy hats and cash to be spent, Tristan Himes stood with his black cross named Steve behind a red swinging gate.
To fully understand this moment, you must first understand who Tristan is.
His mother stood in the same position 38 years ago with her 1984 Grand Champion Steer. In 2014, Tristan’s cousin Flint Newman took home the grand champion title with his steer, coming away from the auction with $200,000.
To make this moment, to be the best of 3,221 steers, took Tristan spending more time at the barn with Steve than with his friends. It meant a bath every day for Steve, who hasn’t missed one since Aug. 1.
Today is the day where it all comes full circle for the 17-year-old state champion football player from Sterling City, who’s been showing since third grade.
When the time came, Tristan led Steve, the 1,389-pound steer with a strong face, sturdy legs and black coat the color of an ink splot, into the sale ring, trailed by another boy carrying a purple banner reading “GRAND CHAMPION STEER OF THE SHOW.”
And then the grand, annual dance of chants over the jabbering auctioneer began. The price rose and Tristan paced Steve atop green dyed wood shreds.
The price climbed, and then it climbed again. It got to $270,000 before the auctioneer paused.
“Tristan,” the auctioneer said into the microphone. “How we getting along?”
“Doing great,” Tristan yelled back.
Then, the price hit $300,000 to tie the record set by the last Grand Champion Steer. The crowd cheered. Tristan’s broad smile lit up.
And after nearly four-and-a-half minutes, the gavel dropped: sold to Steering Committee for $310,000, a stock show record.
Before they arranged themselves for a group picture, Tristan posed Steve for the crowd, steer drool smearing the right side of his jeans.
“I just took a breath and went out there and it felt like my day,” Tristan told a group of reporters following his win. “It ended up being my day.”
For Tristan and his family, the win means carrying on a tradition.
“Our family’s been doing it for generations and generations,” his mother Kody Horwood said. “It’s just what we do. It’s what we eat, sleep and breathe.”
The win for Steve means keeping the rest of his life. Most of the animals sold here go to the food system, a spokesperson said. Dean Tetirick with Steering Committee said he’d give the cash cow to the Fort Worth Zoo if they’d have him. If not, Tetirick said he’d make space for Steve on his own ranch.
Steering Committee went over budget to buy the steer, Tetirick said.
“You get caught up in the excitement of the moment,” Tetirick said. “And one guy in our group was sitting behind me and he looked down at the guy with the paddle and he said, ‘If you’re not first you’re last.’”
This story was originally published February 5, 2022 at 11:20 AM.
