Trimming the field: Lineup set for Puyallup Pro Rodeo, second event in Ariat Playoffs Series
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A total of 24 world champions with a combined 69 world titles highlight the 191-contestant field for the Puyallup (Wash.) Pro Rodeo, the second of four events of the $1.62 million Ariat Playoffs.
Competitors in the Puyallup round of the Ariat Playoffs will compete for a share of the $348,000 purse when the three-day event starts Sept. 5 at the Western Washington Fairgrounds. The Wrangler ProRodeo Tour’s Puyallup round will be televised on Fox Sports Net, with three separate one-hour telecasts beginning the week of Sept. 22.
Action takes place on Sept. 5-6 at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. PT, with each of the first four performances consisting of 12 competitors in each event. The semifinals, which will feature the top eight competitors in each event after two rounds, is scheduled to get under way at 1 p.m. Sept. 7, with the four-person final round immediately following.
Five-time and reigning World Champion All-Around Cowboy Trevor Brazile of Decatur, Texas, heads the list as the only two-event cowboy in Puyallup, competing in team roping (with Patrick Smith, the 2005 world champion team roping heeler) and tie-down roping, an event in which Brazile won the world title in 2007.
Brazile, the leader in the world’s all-around standings, is trying to match Tom Ferguson and Larry Mahan, who each won six world all-around titles, and would trail only Ty Murray’s mark of seven in the record books.
In addition to Brazile, six other reigning world champions plan on being in attendance in Puyallup next week – bareback rider Bobby Mote of Culver, Ore.; steer wrestler Jason Miller of Lance Creek, Wyo.; team roping header Chad Masters of Clarksville, Tenn.; team roping heeler Walt Woodard of Stephenville, Texas; saddle bronc rider Taos Muncy of Corona, N.M.; and barrel racer Brittany Pozzi-Pharr of Victoria, Texas.
Reigning World Champion Bull Rider Wesley Silcox of Payson, Utah, suffered two fractures in his right leg at the Dodge Xtreme Bulls Tour event Aug. 24 in Bremerton, Wash., and will miss the event. Muncy, who missed more than three months after sustaining a broken leg at the Red Bluff (Calif.) Roundup in April, qualified for the first Ariat Playoff in Caldwell, Idaho, but did not enter the rodeo.
The top 11 contestants in each event, based on total prize money from the cumulative Wrangler ProRodeo Tour regular season standings, plus points from the first two Ariat Playoffs, will join the Puyallup champion in each event in qualifying for the River City Roundup in Omaha, Neb., the third Ariat Playoffs event. Action in Omaha is scheduled for Sept. 25-27.
The Playoffs started in Caldwell, Idaho, Aug. 12-16, with the top 35 contestants from the 26-city Wrangler ProRodeo Tour and each event champion from the 2008 Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo. After Caldwell, the field was whittled to the top 22 from the cumulative Tour standings Caldwell playoff champs, plus DNCFR titlists.
For more information on the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour and the Ariat Playoffs, visit www.prorodeo.com.
Ellensburg Rodeo kicks off Labor Day weekend
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo gets under way this weekend, highlighted by the ninth of 11 events on the Dodge Xtreme Bulls Tour, presented by B&W Hitches, on Aug. 30. This is the sixth year that Ellensburg Rodeo Arena is the home to both the Ellensburg Rodeo and Xtreme Bulls.
Action from the Ellensburg Rodeo, a four-performance event offering $20,000 added money in the roughstock events as well as tie-down roping, steer wrestling and barrel racing, $34,500 in team roping and $6,000 in steer roping, starts on Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. PT with matinee shows the rest of the way – 1 p.m. over the weekend and noon for the final round on Labor Day.
The Ellensburg Rodeo kicks off the final month of the regular season, which ends Sept. 30. After that, only the two remaining rodeos in the Ariat Playoff Series (Omaha, Neb., and Dallas); the Heartland ProRodeo Series Championship (Oct. 3-11 in Waco, Texas); and the final event on the Dodge Xtreme Bulls Tour (Oct. 24 in Indianapolis) count toward the 2008 Crusher Rentals PRCA World Standings and qualification to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
The Xtreme Bulls stop gets cranked up on Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. PT. Current Xtreme Bulls standings leader Chance Smart of Philadelphia, Miss., headlines a talented, 40-rider field that includes a trio of world champions – B.J. Schumacher of Hillsboro, Wis. (2006); Matt Austin of Wills Point, Texas (2005); and Cody Hancock of Taylor, Ariz. (2000), and two Xtreme Bulls national champions in Mike Moore of Kankakee, Ill. (2003) and Zeb Lanham of Sweet, Idaho (2006).
Previous Xtreme Bulls Tour stop champions for 2008 are Myron Duarte of Auburn, Wash. (Rapid City, S.D.-Jan. 25-26); Smart (San Antonio-Jan. 31); Wesley Silcox of Payson, Utah (San Antonio-Feb. 16 and Laughlin, Nev.-April 12-13); Mike Moore of Kankakee, Ill. (Houston-March 18); Clayton Foltyn of El Campo, Texas (Reno, Nev.-June 19); Zeb Lanham of Sweet, Idaho (Cody, Wyo.-July 5); and Joe Meling of Pendleton, Ore. (Bremerton, Wash.-Aug. 24).
In Xtreme Bulls, every contestant competes in the semifinal round, with the top 12 performers advancing to the final round. The winner of the two-head average wins that stop's title. Earnings from Xtreme Bulls count toward the Crusher Rentals PRCA World Standings, which determines qualifiers for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, Dec. 4-13 in Las Vegas.
In Ellensburg, each rider is competing for part of a $50,000 purse.
ESPN2 and ESPN will broadcast the action from Ellensburg. ESPN will air highlights on Sept. 28 at 2 p.m. ET, with ESPN2 delivering an encore presentation on Oct. 12 at 4 p.m. ET.
A five-bagger: Brazile has $17K weekend
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Don’t look now, but five-time and reigning World Champion All-Around Cowboy Trevor Brazile is really starting to open quite an advantage on top of the all-around standings. That’s what checks worth $17,728 in one weekend, on the heels of another week that brought in more than $17,000, will do.
His latest onslaught came at the Horse Heaven Round-Up in Kennewick, Wash.; the Kitsap County Fair & Rodeo in Bremerton, Wash.; the Rancho Mission Viejo Rodeo in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.; and the Norco (Calif.) Mounted Posse Rodeo.
Brazile, of Decatur, Texas, claimed his biggest paychecks in San Juan Capistrano, home of the PRCA’s highest-paying two-day rodeo. Brazile won the rodeo’s all-around title after earning $9,192, highlighted by a $5,235 payday for winning the team roping (with Patrick Smith of Midland, Texas). He also finished second in tie-down roping.
It was a repeat performance for the team, which also won the San Juan Capistrano title in 2007.
Brazile also captured all-around crowns at both Washington rodeos, winning $3,758 in Kennewick and another $3,262 in Bremerton. Along the way, he and Smith took top honors in team roping in Kennewick. The tandem also finished second in Norco, winning $1,516 apiece. Brazile jumped from 13th to 3rd in the team roping (header) standings while Smith advanced from 12th to 4th among heelers.
Other highlights from the weekend included:
· Dean Gorsuch, the 2006 world champion steer wrestler, continued his recent hot streak since winning the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days by claiming titles in San Juan Capistrano and Kennewick last weekend. Gorsuch, of Gering, Neb., earned $8,263 at the two rodeos.
· Cowboys named Cody had particularly good weekends, starting with saddle bronc rider Cody Taton of Newell, S.D. Taton won the title in Kennewick after riding Flying Five Rodeo’s Spring Planting for 86 points and later tied for the title in Bremerton, earning nearly $10,000 during the weekend. Saddle bronc rider Cody Wright took over the lead in the world standings from Billy Etbauer by securing the weekend’s biggest paycheck, bagging $7,560 after his 86-point ride aboard Flying U Rodeo’s Black Wasp to take the title in San Juan Capistrano. Wright also placed second in Kennewick, good for another $3,658. Cody Hancock, the 2000 world champion bull rider, displayed his top form by winning the Kennewick title with a 90-point ride on Big Bend Rodeo’s No. 427, good for $4,574.
Meling tames bulls, weather in Bremerton
Typically, an average score of 70 doesn’t take many cowboys to the pay window. But Sunday wasn’t your typical day at the Bremerton, Wash., edition of the Dodge Xtreme Bulls Tour, presented by B&W Trailer Hitches.
Heavy rain throughout the two-round, 40-rider event wreaked havoc on most of the contestants. In the end, Joe Meling of Pendleton, Ore., emerged as the only cowboy with two qualified rides, a cumulative 140 points that wasn’t pretty – like the elements – but was effective enough to claim $10,152, the biggest win of his career.
Meling, whose 76 in the first round originally wasn’t good enough to make the 12-cowboy final round, got a reprieve after two contestants withdrew because of injuries. And riding first in the final round, Meling scored a modest 64 points on D & H Cattle’s Border Patrol but turned down a re-ride option. After that, the succeeding 11 bull riders all hit the arena mud before the whistle, and Meling earned his first Dodge Xtreme Bulls Tour title.
The first round saw eight scores of more than 80 points, topped by Bobby Welsh, whose 88-point ride aboard Western Rodeo’s Butcher Boy gave him $4,230 and a two point lead over Luke Haught of Weatherford, Texas, and Shawn Proctor of Tooele, Utah.
Highlights from Bremerton’s Dodge Xtreme Bulls Tour stop will be broadcast on ESPN at 3:30 p.m. (ET) Sept. 7 and later on ESPN2 at 3 p.m. (ET) Nov. 23.
FSN starts Caldwell broadcasts Sept. 1
Fox Sports Net (FSN) begins coverage of the Ariat Playoffs series on Sept. 1 with the first of three separate, one-hour telecasts of action from the Caldwell (Idaho) Night Rodeo.
The 18 regional FSN providers will televise first-round action Sept. 1 and Sept. 4, with semifinal-round action scheduled for Sept. 8-11. Final-round coverage is set for Sept. 15-19.
See www.prorodeo.com for a complete list of Caldwell telecast times for each region. Schedules may change or vary within regions, so please consult your local listings.
FSN's coverage will continue with four separate one-hour shows from the Puyallup (Wash.) round of the Ariat Playoffs. FSN will also produce four separate one-hour telecasts of the semifinal and final rounds of the River City Stampede in Omaha, Neb. FSN's coverage will conclude by featuring the best in rodeo with three separate one-hour telecasts of the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Championship in Dallas.
CBS Sports has once again partnered with the Wranger ProRodeo Tour and Pro Rodeo Tour LLC to televise the final round of the 2008 Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Championship. CBS Sports will air the final round from Dallas on Nov. 23.
Upcoming PRCA Rodeos
Columbia River Circuit: Walla Walla Fair & Frontier Days, Aug. 29-31, Walla Walla, Wash.; Ellensburg Rodeo, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, Ellensburg, Wash.; Dodge Xtreme Bulls Tour, Aug. 30, Ellensburg, Wash.
First Frontier Circuit: Painted Pony Championship Rodeo, Aug. 27, 29, Lake Luzerne, N.Y.; Walt Keever Memorial Rodeo at Cowtown, Aug. 30, Woodstown Pilesgrove, N.J.
Great Lakes Circuit: Minnesota State Fair PRCA Rodeo, Aug. 28-29, St. Paul, Minn.; Dayton Championship Rodeo, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, Dayton, Iowa; Pine City Championship Rodeo, Aug. 30-31, Pine City, Minn.; Pioneer City Rodeo, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, Palestine, Ill.
Montana Circuit: Sanders County Fair & PRCA Rodeo, Aug. 29-30, Plains; Dillon Jaycee Rodeo, Aug. 30-31, Dillon; White Sulphur Springs PRCA Labor Day Rodeo, Aug. 31-Sept. 1, White Sulphur Springs
Mountain States Circuit: Steamboat Springs Pro Rodeo Series, Aug. 29-30, Steamboat Springs, Colo.; Colorado State Fair & Rodeo, Aug. 22-26, Pueblo, Colo.; Evanston Cowboy Days, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, Evanston, Wyo.; Ouray County Fair & Rodeo, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, Ridgway, Colo.
Prairie Circuit: Will Rogers Memorial Rodeo, Aug. 27-30, Vinita, Okla.; Longford Rodeo, Aug. 29-30, Longford, Kan.; Elk City Rodeo of Champions, Aug. 29-31, Elk City, Okla.; Oregon Trail Rodeo, Aug. 29-31, Hastings, Neb.
Southeastern Circuit: Ocala Shrine Rodeo, Aug. 29-31, Ocala, Fla.; Delta Fair Rodeo, Aug. 30-31, Memphis, Tenn.; Okeechobee County Cattlemen’s Labor Day Rodeo, Aug. 31-Sept. 1, Okeechobee, Fla.
Turquoise Circuit: Williams Labor Day PRCA Rodeo, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, Williams, Ariz.
Wilderness Circuit: Magic Valley Stampede, Aug. 28-30, Filer, Idaho Canada: IPE & Stampede, Aug. 27-31, Armstrong, British Columbia; Okotoks Pro Rodeo, Aug. 29-31, Okotoks, Alberta
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