If you think Jim Ware is your ordinary cutter, listen to him speak.

The Weatherford, Texas, cowboy can rattle off words the way a Gatling gun spits out bullets. Just what you would expect from someone in the auction business.

Ware and Readytoware marked a 220 in the first go-round of the Classic Non-Pro in the 25th annual Augusta Futurity at Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center.

On Shorty Mialena, Greg Coalson of Weatherford, Texas, rung up a 220.5 to win the go-round. He also tied for the third-best score in the round, a 219 on the 5-year-old stallion Quejanaisalena.

The top 62 horses with scores of 210 or better moved to the second go-round.

Co-owner of Western Bloodstock, an auction company that manages all horse sales for the National Cutting Horse Association, Ware rarely has time for much else.

"Very seldom do I have a chance to cut," said Ware, who last cut in Augusta during the show's 20th anniversary. "I knew this was a big year over here. This futurity to me is just unlike any other."

At Western Bloodstock, Ware is heavily involved with promotion, marketing and sales. More importantly for customers, he helps talk up a horse to find a quick buyer.

"Every horse, there's something good to say about him," Ware said. "Whether it be their pedigree or their confirmation or how they're groomed, I look for something. I look for something good to say about all of them."

Coalson was the reserve champion in the Futurity Non-Pro last year on Quejanaisalena, the horse he had the 219 on Wednesday.

"He's been a real consistent horse," Coalson said. "He's a lot of fun to show. He's really strong and he can get real low to the ground and get out of there real easy."

With two of the top three scores in the go-round, Coalson doesn't have to be perfect in the second go.

"Here it kinds you a little cushion for the second go-round," he said. "You can have a miss or a bobble somewhere, but you've got the cushion and you can keep advancing."