Vernal, Utah-It was a gut feeling . . . a gut feeling that was worth about $4,200. New Mexico cowgirl Sabrina Ketcham unsaddled her great horse Swivel ta Fame after a run at the Silver Tour rodeo in Sheridan, Wyo., with a sense of unease. The 10-year old son of legendary PESI stallion Dash ta Fame had been back from an injury suffered at Silver City, N.M., in June for just over a week but he wasn't feeling right to his jockey.

"It wasn't that he wasn't working but he wasn't turning like he turns. He has a unique turn and he was kinda bouncing around," Ketcham says of her frustrating journey through three Fourth of July rodeos and Sheridan. "I actually had a ride for him to go back to the vet but I wanted to take him to Vernal."

The Dinosaur Round-Up Rodeo had been good to Ketcham and Swivel as the pair had earned money in their two previous trips there. With $10,000 in added money and over 100 entries, the 2012 edition promised to be well worth the effort to the winners.

"I wanted to get him there, to run him in some good ground," Ketcham says, adding that she just felt she should try him one more run as she couldn't find any soreness to point to specifically for the horse's slower times.

It was a fortuitous decision. Running in the slack after the second performance on Friday the 13th, Ketcham blew through a blazing sub-seventeen second run. Her time of 16.91 was fifteen one-hundredths better than closest competitor Kaley Bass.

"He worked super nice," says Ketcham, an endorsee for ADM Alliance Nutrition. "He just needed the confidence that being in good ground can give, that he won't hurt and he won't fall again."

Swivel is actually Ketcham's mother's horse, bought at the sale barn in Roswell for the incredibly low price of $1,200.

"Yeah, all the barrel racers around New Mexico said, 'there must be something wrong with him,'" Ketcham laughs, noting that Swivel's famous pedigree would normally push the sale price much higher. "He came off the track, had several starts but didn't win. It was our lucky day, just meant to be."

Deana Murphy cowboyed on the horse and broke him to the pattern. After spending time taking the gelding to the local jackpots, she was scheduled to have her knees replaced and asked her daughter if she wanted to ride Swivel.

"We didn't know how good he would be. He didn't know how good he was," says Ketcham. Together, the pair has garnered numerous big wins including the Western Frontier ProRodeo in Pocatello in 2011.

With the $4,260 won in Vernal, Ketcham moved to 42nd in the World standings. While she is on the road for several weeks with scheduled stops in Salt Lake City, Nampa, Spanish Fork and Cheyenne in the next week, Ketcham is not planning to stay on the road full time.

"I rodeo in spurts. I'll go hard a few weeks here and there and in the summer," she laughs. When not on the road, Ketcham and her husband Justin ranch in Yeso, N.M. "My son Bridger starts school the first of August so I'll probably go home then." Bridger is seven and starting second grade while younger brother Pike is three.

For her part, Ketcham couldn't say enough good things about the Dinosaur Round-Up.

"They really work hard and put a lot of time into it," she says, adding that the committee knows their ground and always does a good job in creating fair conditions for the barrel racers. "It's nice to go to one that cares that much."

For more information on the Dinosaur Round-Up, visit them on-line at www.vernalrodeo.com.