Benjie Neely is quick to point out Augusta is home to her.

Her father, Dr. Ben Neely, graduated from Hephzibah High School. One of her three sisters, Tracy, lives here and works at the Medical College of Georgia.

Benjie Neely lives in Lyons, Ga., about 107 miles from here. She is the lone Georgian competing in the Classic Non-Pro.

"This is home," she said.

Aboard Palona, Neely marked 215 in the Classic Non-Pro second go-round to easily advance to tonight's finals.

Matt Miller and Soda Rey Bay rung up the round's top score with 218. The pair enter the finals with the top aggregate score of 434, a half-point ahead of Curry Diehl and Uno San Sunday, who recorded 217.5.

Mary Ann Rapp and Miss Reycine, the first go-round winners, marked a conservative 215.5 for a 432.5 total.

The top 21 cutters with combined totals of 424 or better (including Neely and Palona at 428.5) will compete in the finals, which begin at 6 p.m. There will be a new champion this year because 2007 winner Skip Queen moved up to the professional division.

Neely will be seeking her third Augusta win. She claimed the 1994 $50,000 Amateur on Chiquita Tari before winning the 2006 Classic Non-Pro on Annabella Lea.

Last year, she failed to advance her two horses out of the second round of the Classic Non-Pro.

One of those horses was Palona, now a 6-year-old mare by Playin Stylish out of Smart Little Trona.

The horse suffered a quarter crack, a crack in her hoof, at the 2005 National Cutting Horse Association World Champion-ship Futurity before later injuring her rear suspensory ligaments.

"She went through a lot as a 4-year-old," Neely said. "We ended up having to rest her and let her heal up."

Neely said she showed her just a few times last year to allow Palona time to heal.

"We've always thought she was real special," she said. "Just the way she thinks, the way she stops. She's really, really quick."

With 50 horses on the family's ranch, Neely wakes early to work them. By noon, she's helping with the front office work (insurance, accounts receivable and payable) at her father's family practice. Ben Neely also serves as the chief of staff at the hospital in nearby Vidalia, Ga.

"I actually had to take the week off," the younger Neely said with a laugh.