{"id":157098,"date":"2026-02-09T16:32:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/157098\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:32:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:32:06","slug":"white-castle-fort-worth-stock-shows-grand-champion-steer-sells-for-a-record-550000-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/157098\/","title":{"rendered":"White Castle, Fort Worth Stock Show\u2019s grand champion steer, sells for a record $550,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

White Castle<\/a>, the 1,459-pound European crossbred steer exhibited by a 13-year-old from Hood County, sold for a record-smashing $550,000 Saturday at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo\u2019s annual Junior Sale of Champions.<\/p>\n

Trico Electric<\/a>, a 40-year-old commercial electric contractor based in Azle, outlasted major bidders including Hillwood, represented by Ross Perot Jr. Gary Menzies, Trico\u2019s founder, said his previous high spending at the stock show auction was $58,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday morning, I woke up and said I\u2019m going to go ahead and do it,\u201d Menzies said in an interview.<\/p>\n

The stock show\u2019s previous record for the grand champion steer was 2023\u2019s $440,000<\/a>, spent by the Fort Worth insurance brokerage Higginbotham, which was also in on Saturday\u2019s bidding for White Castle. Last year, the grand champion went for $375,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The money left White Castle\u2019s exhibitor, Caiman Cody of Tolar, virtually speechless.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust unreal,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cI can\u2019t even explain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Codys raise and show cattle for a living and are used to competing for high stakes. Caiman\u2019s dad, Bret, is a fourth-generation cattleman.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always have it in the back of your mind, but it really is hard to reach,\u201d Kasey Cody, Caiman\u2019s mom, said of the payday for White Castle. \u201cWe\u2019re so blessed to have the opportunity to come here. We\u2019re so overwhelmed and grateful for all the blessings we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Codys plan to use the prize money to grow their operation of about 100 head of cattle. Caiman said he wants to help other youth interested in agriculture careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to go to college one day, and I want to educate more kids about agriculture,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s love of cheeses and burgers helps direct the names they give their steers.<\/p>\n

The Codys will look for a different kind of splurge on their way home: an ice cream shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how we celebrate,\u201d Bret Cody said.<\/p>\n

Trico has 75 employees and specializes in commercial installations from the ground up, Menzies said.<\/p>\n

He is a longtime member of the Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate<\/a>, the largest of the nonprofit groups that raise commitments and money to buy the 300 champion<\/a> steers, barrows, lambs and goats exhibited by youth at the stock show.<\/p>\n

Even though Menzies hadn\u2019t bid into the stratosphere before Saturday\u2019s auction, he said his rationale remained the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great cause,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to support the kids. You\u2019ve got to turn it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheeto, the reserve grand champion steer exhibited by Abilene 16-year-old Cash Goretska sold for a record-matching $300,000 to Hillwood in Saturday\u2019s auction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a blur of numbers,\u201d Cash, whose family also raises cattle for a living, told reporters. \u201cI heard $200,000, and it started working up and up, and it sold. It was wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth auction is unusual among youth livestock sales in that 100% of the proceeds go to the youth who show the animals. The event lived up to its reputation for the Codys and Goretskas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing compared to this auction,\u201d Cash\u2019s dad, Tracy, told reporters. \u201cUnbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lott resident Carson Newell walks his grand champion wether goat during the Junior Sale of Champions Livestock Auction on Feb. 7 at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. Other Saturday sales of this year\u2019s grand champion and reserve grand champion animals largely reflected longstanding bidders for the stock show\u2019s top animals:<\/p>\n

Stock Show Syndicate officials said the auction raised $10.2 million by its close late in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old Syndicate opened the day $4 million short of $100 million in total spending by members in its history.<\/p>\n

By the end, it surpassed that mark.<\/p>\n

Scott Nishimura is senior editor for local government accountability at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Higginbotham is a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> first appeared on Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"White Castle, the 1,459-pound European crossbred steer exhibited by a 13-year-old from Hood County, sold for a record-smashing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-157098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}