Nelson Named Top Trainer at State Fair

If you happened to be at the Horse Racing event at the 2022 Montana State Fair in Great Falls on July 31, there is a chance that you heard a familiar name over the speakers.

Buckshot Nelson, son of Judy and Dan Simonson, was awarded the Leading Trainer (and Owner) trophy for his stable of horses, named B Flying Star Racing Stables, at the conclusion of the three weekend Great Falls Turf Club event which started in Great Falls on Saturday, July 16 to Sunday, July 17, continued the following weekend from July 23-24, and concluded after three days (July 29-31) at the State Fair.

"It was crazy," Nelson told the PCN. "We had run nine horses that day and I wasn't thinking about it either. I went into that last weekend way behind and that last weekend those horses just ran like they were on fire in Great Falls."

Buckshot won the award for best trainer and best owner because his horses won the most races out of the Great Falls Turf Club series. The races included 80 horses a day. Nelson's team won 57% of their races, a total of eight.

The horses that Nelson used in the series included Reddish, Afleetasha, Malibu Rose, Pierpont, Royal Seeker and Watchout.

Nelson went into the last weekend in fourth place.

"Some barns have 20 horses," Nelson said. "I went into the weekend in fourth place and didn't even think that I had a chance at catching them."

On the last day of races, Afleetasha won the ninth scheduled race with only three remaining. The script had been flipped. There was not only a chance to win it for B Flying Star Racing Stables, it was a done deal.

"I was in the win circle and they came and told me to make sure that I was in the win circle after the last race," Nelson said.

He was asked how he selected the horses that he did.

"You just look at past performances and how they ran," Nelson said. "Each of them has a past performance that you can look at. You look at times, and look at the horse, and see if you can better it or not."

One of the top performers included Afleetasha.

"Afleetasha is a 10-year-old gelding. I bought him from a friend in July," Nelson said. "He won four in a row and he is just awesome."

To help showcase the skills of his horses, was jockey Dakota Wood, who won a total of 28 races over the series, eight which were for Nelson's team. Wood was named the Leading Jockey for the event.

"The jockey is a huge percentage of it, because you can have a horse so ready, but if your jockey doesn't ride it right, you are just screwed," Nelson said.

Nelson has been training horses for quite some time, and has been around them his whole life, thanks to his grandfather, the late Bud Phillips, who was a legendary racehorse trainer, rancher, and owner of the Old Cowboy Bar in Dodson.

"I grew up on the track ever since I could walk," Nelson said. "I've just been there my whole life."

In addition to training horses, Nelson also grew up helping on the family ranch and participating in rodeos.

Though he spent much of his time with his grandfather in Dodson, Nelson went to school in Whitewater, and graduated from Whitewater High School in 1999. He has been training, ranching, and rodeoing to this day.