2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes

February 13-15, 2026 

J.S. Bridwell Ag Center - Witchta Falls, TX

Alpaca Country Estates is proud to be a VIP Banquet Sponsor

for the 2026 TxOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes

Judge: Kevin O'Leary

Color Champion, ESTATES XXXTREME LEGACY PASSION – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Fawn Male Championship (Class of 36) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “You know, when you get into a championship, you kind of look even harder than you do in a regular class. We go from 10 months to 51.7 months; there is not a lot of difference on the micron in that whole lineup. The other thing is, they all are carrying their architecture all the way underneath their belly—every single one of them. Down the front legs, down the back legs, all across—it’s extremely uniform. This is really a very impressive group of animals. (It must have been the judge! LOL.) This champion male—I went all the way under his belly and it’s the exact same architecture. At his age, he is maintaining such a fine, uniform fleece. And as I had said in the oral description when judging his 2-year-old class: if you are looking for a good photograph to show what a true stud male should look like, put this guy in profile and take his picture. Substance of bone coverage, straightness on that top line, the degree of density, the head style—I mean, he has so many positive traits. It was a privilege judging them, and you should really look at these guys.”

Reserve Champion, ESTATES PICASSO'S FAMOUS PAINTING – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Brown Male Championship (Class of 12) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “One of the things an old judge, Maggie Krieger, told me years ago was that people need to breed for longevity of fineness in alpacas. This alpaca here—at 56 months of age, heading towards five years—is still carrying one of the finer fleeces out of this group. That’s impressive. You look at him, and I went over to check the length; I did the ‘old elbow on the withers,’ reached up, and swung my hand just to confirm it. It’s just that there is such a volume of fleece on him—such a long staple—that it makes him look a little out of proportion. When you shear him, he is going to be perfectly conformed. I was just so impressed that a male of this age is maintaining this degree of fineness. Congratulations. Well deserved.”

1st  Place, ESTATES DARLIN MISS ARKANSAS – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Dark Brown Yearling Female (Class of 4) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “This was a very, very competitive class, and a lot of depth through this whole class.  The four of these alpacas, even with the humidity and everything else, really rose to the top. I pulled 103 up as my first place. I really appreciated that structure, the overall frame. Really well-balanced, little compact, good depth of chest, good substance of bone, spring of ribs. When you open the fleece, it’s extremely long regrowth on her, and a lot of brightness to this fleece. It’s a very, very well-nourished fleece. Kind of as bright as it has (inaudible). It was just that well-nourished fleece, really, really healthy, expressing a very high density within the staple.”

1st  Place, ESTATES PICASSO'S FAMOUS PAINTING – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Brown Mature Male (Class of 1) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary)

1st  Place, ESTATES KOLBE'S CRUISE'N STREAK – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Gray Juvenile Male (Class of 1) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “He has a lot of potential and a very, very soft, uniform fleece. Very consistent micron all the way across. Expressing very uniform as far as the architecture goes. And it’s all sitting on a well-balanced frame. So, he has a lot of potential. It will be interesting to see how he grows up when you see him later in the spring, or even next fall, because there is a beautiful style to that head. Congratulations. Well deserved.”

1st Place, ESTATES RINGMASTER'S MANUKA HONEY – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Med. Fawn Juvenile Male (Class of 4) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “I had four entries in this medium fawn juvenile male class here. Standing at the top of the class today was a clear winner. Just a very, very well-organized fleece, expressing a good degree of density. You can look from that head-style, you look at the bone, you look at the depth of chest, the spring of ribs. I mean, he’s carrying all the positive traits you could look at.”

1st Place, ESTATES RINGMASTER'S PRINCE PASSION – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Light Juvenile Male (Class of 5) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “Standing at the top of the class is my first-place male here. He was just the most complete; he was carrying a good degree of density and a very typey phenotype all the way through. He had a beautiful style to that head and substance of bone. He had the most depth through the chest area and was carrying a relatively fine fleece.”

1st Place, ESTATES SAKIMA'S JAPANESE BLOSSOM – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Black Juvenile Female (Class of 6) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge's comments: "Standing at the top of the class, this girl was just the most complete. Really beautiful phenotype too. As she stands in profile, she just looks the part. You get into the fleece, it's extremely dense and well-organized fleece.”

1st Place, ESTATES XXXTREME LEGACY PASSION – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Fawn 2-Year-Old Male (Class of 7) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “Standing at the top of the class, this guy just—you know, if they could put a picture on something to show what a macho male looks like, that’s a pretty good example. He’s maintaining a very fine fleece; extreme high degree of density.”

2nd Place, ESTATES ANDALUSIAN PRINCESS – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Dark Bred & Owned Yearling Female (Class of 3) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) *First Place won Best Bred & Owned

2nd Place, ESTATES EARLGREYS SILVER SANDDOLLAR – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Gray Yearling Female (Class of 6) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “This was a very interesting class to judge, I guess you could say. Part of it was some of the finest animals were so sweaty that they weren’t expressing their architecture of their fleece correctly. There was not a big variation on fineness between this whole group. They were all relatively fine. I think that 2nd Place got a little bit of hurt from this humidity here today. Because she’s got the density. You look at that head style. It’s telling you that you’re going to find a really dense fleece. Just was not holding that architecture to the staples to her fullest ability today. That’s really all it really boiled down to. A real beautiful little girl. The uniformity between the light and the dark fibers was really spot on.”

2nd Place, ESTATES MALAGA'S MASTERPIECEXXX – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Dark Bred & Owned Yearling Male (Class of 5) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “I would like to compliment all of these breeders for bringing out some very good animals in this bred and owned class. I was going back and forth between first and second. My second place has a really long staple length. Equally as fine. It was just a little differential on that staple formation, but two absolutely beautiful males.”

2nd Place, ESTATES SHOWTIME'S SILVER PRINCESS – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter,  Huacaya Gray Juvenile Female (Class of 5) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) *First Place won Reserve Champion. (Judge’s Comments: “I don’t want to take much away from the second alpaca though.  Beautiful head style. When you see a head style like that you know you are going to feel a degree of density within it. It was also a relatively fine fleece.”

3rd Place, ESTATES LUSTROUS GRAPHITE – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Black Juvenile Female (Class of 6) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) *First Place was our Estates Sakima's Japanese Blossom Judge's comments: “This is where the environment and this humidity comes into play, because by far the finest fleece was my third place. Extremely fine, but it is just this humidity here has just destroyed what it looks like. That degree of fineness - she was at least four microns finer than anyone else in the class. This third place had great structure to the alpaca. You know, well-balanced. Great head. Good substance of bone. Extremely fine, but the fleece, just because it was so fine, just kind of fell apart due to the humidity today. Tomorrow, if we don’t have rain tonight, these placements could be totally different.”

3rd Place, ESTATES ROYAL PRINCE CHARMING XXX – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Silver Gray Yearling Male (Class of 6) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) *First Place won Reserve Champion.  Judge’s comments: “This was a very impressive group of yearling grey males all the way across the board. From first all the way to sixth, there was a lot of uniformity within these fleeces. When I got into #116, this one might have been one of the two finest fleeces out of this group here. He has a very long staple length. Extremely uniform of micron. Very fine. It’s all sitting on top of a good solid frame.”

3rd Place, ESTATES SECRET PASSION – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Dark Fawn Yearling Female (Class of 5) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “Third place was another one of those well-nourished fleeces. Very, very bright. A good degree of amplitude within the staples. Very, very consistent character. Similar to what I said about the first place - Shoulder, going down towards the front legs to the belly, mid-section, all the way to the top line, she was expressing the same architecture to that fleece.”

4th Place, ESTATES MYSTIC'S GOLDEN GIRL XXX – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Halter, Huacaya Dark Fawn Yearling Female (Class of 5) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) *Ranch-mate was third place. Judge’s comments: “Expressing a very consistent structure to the fleece. It had an edge over my fifth place for the degree of organization and the degree of density.”

4th Place, ESTATES PURE PASSIONATE TAPESTRYXX – 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya Med. Fawn Juvenile Female (Class of 11) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “That was almost like working for a living. I showed my arm band to a spectator, and his reply was I’m glad you have to make this decision and not me. It’s amazing how fine all the way across the board this whole line up was. This class, when they walked in. I kind of knew it was going to be a tough class so I looked at them in multiple places the first time through. I didn’t just look at three or four spots, I looked at six to eight spots on every alpaca. When I get into my third and fourth, these were two juvies that were never shorn. When you first open up a juvie that has never been shorn, you look at it and go wow. Wait ‘til you see this next fleece that’s coming in. Then you look at it more and more, and you’re like wait a minute, it’s already here. My third place had a slight edge as far as the density goes. Didn’t have an edge as far as the fineness went, or the brightness. This fleece, you open it up and it just glistens when you’re looking at it. It's just really, really hand and groove.”

5th Place, FT INDEPENDENCE - 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Huacaya Black Yearling Male (Class of 11) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) *First place won Color Champion & 2nd Place won Reserve Champion. Judge’s comments: “I love the phenotype. Love the coverage. Love the head-style. Extremely well-balanced frame. You get into his fleece; it is an extremely soft handle to this fleece. Very, very uniform of micron.”

5th Place, ESTATES ULTIMATE BLACK KNIGHT - 2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Huacaya Black Juvenile Male (Class of 5) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “He has a relatively well-organized fleece. Definitely true black. I love uniformity of color on black. A lot of brightness on a very well-nourished fleece. He was definitely the youngest out of this group. He just needs to grow a little bit. Get a little more maturity in him.”

6th Place, ESTATES GIBRALTAR'S EPIC XXX –2026 TXOLAN Bluebonnet Stakes: Halter, Huacaya White Juvenile Male (Class of 7) (Judge: Kevin O’Leary) Judge’s comments: “Really loved the phenotype, how correct he stands and everything. It was just that big brown spot. Phenotypically he was my pick out of this whole group here. I mean he is just so solid. He’s got beautiful architecture. But in a breeding program, he’s going to breed like a fawn for you."