Barrel Racing Industry Alliance Announces 2024 Graded Races

Following the proven model of a graded stakes system in the racing industry, the Barrel Racing Industry Alliance announced a new system in 2023 to grade barrel races that are consistently recognized as retaining the highest level and quality of competition.

Qualifying barrel races are ranked by Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3, with Grade 1 being the highest grade. Races receiving grades for 2024 were evaluated by BRIA according to total entry numbers, payouts and quality of competition.

As 2024 graded races are entered into the system, these grades will appear on the AQHA QData Database Online Reports. The wins and finalist placings of horses in graded barrel races will then appear on catalog pages produced by the QData Catalog Builder and on the QData Online Data Reports.

This new system more closely aligns barrel horse sale catalog pages with racehorse sale catalog pages and helps breeders, owners and buyers better evaluate the caliber of the horse, its sire and  dam.

The graded races coincide with a recent announcement of a new barrel racing black type system. These new tools from BRIA represent significant advances in data analysis for the barrel racing industry.

A complete list of graded races for 2024 is available now at barrelracingalliance.com.

For more information, contact BRIA@aqha.org.

AQHA news and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more information visit www.aqha.com/news or tune into our Podcast, “Let's Talk AQHA.”