White Castle, a 1,459-pound European crossbred steer whose family admits to an affinity for cheeses and hamburgers, won grand champion Friday at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo’s Junior Steer Show.
The prize guarantees White Castle’s exhibitor, 13-year-old Caiman Cody, an eighth grader from Hood County, a big payday in Saturday’s stock show-ending Junior Sale of Champions. About 300 champion animals shown by youth in the stock show’s steer, barrow pig, lamb and goat competitions will be for sale in the auction, which raised more than $10 million last year.
“Just unbelievable,” Caiman told reporters about his win after the two-day steer show ended. “I don’t even know what to say. It’s just been working for over a year now. My family’s been working with me. And there’s been some tough days, but we just fought through it.”
White Castle, a Charolais, started what may begin a new string of victories by European crossbred steers at the Fort Worth Stock Show. The yearslong streak was interrupted last year by the victory of an American crossbred, which fetched $375,000 during the auction.
And in what apparently was a good year at the Fort Worth show for steers named after foods, Cheeto won reserve champion steer — also setting the 1,499-pound European crossbred up for a big payoff Saturday.
“This whole moment is unlike any other right now,” said Cheeto’s exhibitor Cash Goretska, 16, of Abilene. Cash took a class champion with a European crossbred in last year’s show.
Both families raise cattle for a living. Caiman’s family, for one, runs about 100 head of show cattle per year, Kasey Cody, his mom, said.
Caiman described White Castle as “super sweet. He’s my buddy.” The all-white steer was restless after the show ended. White Castle and Cheeto defeated about 1,500 other entries to win the top two prizes.
“He’s kind of riled up because he’s tired,” Caiman said. “It’s been a long day now.”
Caiman, who has shown steers at the Fort Worth show for four years, said he didn’t expect too much when he and his family arrived with White Castle. His highest previous finish was sixth in his class during his first year at the stock show.
“I thought I had a good chance of making the sale and getting the top 10 in my class,” he said. “But I had no idea this was going to happen.”
Caiman’s mom, Kasey Cody, tried to process the top prize as her son spoke to reporters on the floor of Will Rogers Coliseum.
“This is the accomplishment of all accomplishments in this industry,” she said. ”And this is what we do day in and day out. This is what the boys do for fun. When we wake up, we feed these guys before we eat. We feed them before we eat dinner. God is incredible. We are so blessed.”
Cash described Cheeto as “gentle, like a big old puppy dog. He’s always hungry, kind of like me.”
Cheeto was a logical name because the steer has a yellow hue, he said.
This was Cash’s sixth year of showing steers at the Fort Worth show. Even though he’s experienced success at the show, Cash said he was still processing winning reserve champion and what it’ll be like to be the second steer out at the auction.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind experience, really,” he said. “You get to go on that stage in front of all those people.”
Scott Nishimura is senior editor for local government accountability at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org.
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Great Job Scott Nishimura & the Team @ Fort Worth Report for sharing this story.
