The Run For A Million always delivers, and on Saturday, August 15, 2026, it gave reining fans a performance they will be talking about for years to come. For 19 years, the world record for the highest reining score stood at 236.5. Then Kole Price and Golden Coins entered the South Point Arena, changing the record book with a jaw-dropping score of 237.5 to win the 2026 The Run For A Million and the $500,000 first-place prize.
Roll Out the Record Books
The highest reining score ever recorded had stood since the 2007 NRBC, when Andrea Fappani and 2001 stallion Custom Legend (Custom Crome x Dry Doc Bobbie) marked a 236.5 to win the event and rewrite the record books.
Nineteen years later, Draw 7 at The Run For A Million brought the record back into focus. Gabriel Borges and Spooks Gotta Ice (SG Frozen Enterprize x Spooks Gotta Lady) tied the 236.5 mark, sending the South Point Arena crowd to its feet.
With the remaining field still stacked with major Derby and Futurity winners, as well as previous The Run For A Million champions, the possibility of a new record remained.
Four draws later, $2 million rider Kole Price and 2020 stallion Golden Coins (Spooks Gotta Gun x Electric Cha Ching) entered the arena. From the pair’s first stop, the crowd could feel something special was happening. They continued to build their run, ultimately finishing with a 237.5 — a full point above the previous world record.
And just like that, reining history was rewritten.
The score put Price and Golden Coins at the top of the all-time reining high-score leaderboard and secured their $500,000 victory in the 2026 Million Dollar Competition.
Las Vegas Experts
Neither Price nor Golden Coins is a stranger to success at The Run For A Million.
Price earned his spot in the 2026 Million Dollar Competition after finishing second in the 2025 $100,000 Open Shootout aboard Scottie Doesn’t Know (Spooks Gotta Whiz x ChicsDreamOfDiamonds).
Golden Coins also has a history of winning in Las Vegas. In 2024, the stallion captured the Open Shootout championship, earning more than $28,000 for owners Coin Toss LLC. He returned to The Run For A Million in 2025, finishing 11th in the Million Dollar Competition and earning the AQHA Fan Favorite Horse title.
The 2026 season had already been a standout for Golden Coins. Price and the stallion captured the 2026 NRBC Open Derby championship, adding another $100,000 to the stallion’s earnings after also winning the title in 2025. Golden Coins entered The Run For A Million with more than $360,000 in lifetime earnings.
The additional $500,000 from Saturday’s victory pushed his lifetime earnings past $860,000.
For Price, the South Point Arena is familiar territory for major victories. In 2021, he captured the Million Dollar Competition championship aboard Gunna Stop (Gunnatrashya x Stop Little Sister), scoring a 224 in a tiebreaker runoff against Shawn Flarida and Spooks Gotta Spark (Spooks Gotta Whiz x Dolittle Lena).
That 2021 championship pushed Price past the $1 million earnings mark.
Five years later, Price returned to the top of The Run For A Million leaderboard — this time with a world-record score that will have his name and Golden Coins’ name etched into reining history.