Wrangler Million Dollar Tour resumes at Redding Rodeo
REDDING, CALIF. – Redding Rodeo Week got under way May 9 with a steak barbecue and dance and continues for eight days as a celebration of Western heritage, community fun and the resumption of the Wrangler Million Dollar Tour presented by Justin Boots.
It is the fourth of 17 rodeos in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's elite Tour, which will culminate with the Sept. 11-13 Justin Boots Playoffs in Puyallup, Wash., and the Sept. 24-27 Justin Boots Championships in Omaha, Neb.
With $10,000 in added money for each event, the 61st annual Redding Rodeo is a Silver Tier event in the Wrangler Million Dollar Tour and had drawn a field of 483 contestants to the Northern California community.
The field will include all of the reigning 2008 World Champion cowboys and all of the 2007 World Champions as well, except for team roper Walt Woodard, who has retired from full-time competition.
Texan Trevor Brazile, who is seeking a record-tying seventh all-around gold buckle, will compete in both tie-down roping and team roping, where he is paired with Patrick Smith. Brazile is Redding's defending champion in tie-down roping. He completed two runs in 18.5 seconds a year ago to win the average by four-tenths of a second over Casey Branquinho and Jerome Schneeberger.
There is slack competition at 8 a.m. PDT May 14 and all of the evening performances May 14-16 will begin at 7:15 p.m. The popular Redding Rodeo Parade is scheduled for 10 a.m. May 16, and rodeo officials are projecting an increase in entries in the parade of about 10 percent despite the struggling economy.
Visit www.prorodeo.com to find stock draws, schedules and same-day results from Redding.
Tie-down roping has the feel of a Texas family picnic
*Shada Brazile could have made a full weekend out of congratulating members of her extended family on their successes on the Texas Circuit May 8-11.
Shada's husband, Trevor, was the tie-down roping champion at Bridgeport, her step-brother Clint Cooper won the Mineral Wells Rodeo and her uncle Stran Smith won at Jasper.
The only tie-down roping buckle to escape the family came in Crockett, Texas, where Scott Kormos had a time of 7.5 seconds to edge seven-time World Champion Fred Whitfield, Doug Pharr and Smith, the reigning world champion.
Trevor Brazile edged Blair Burk by a tenth of a second with 7.6-second run at Bridgeport and also won a round at Mineral Wells with a time of 7.3 seconds, the fastest of the rodeo. Cooper was the only competitor to place in both rounds at Mineral Wells and won the average with a time of 16.3 seconds, more than a second quicker than runner-up Wade White.
Smith had a time of 17.1 seconds on two head at Jasper to edge Justin Maass (17.4) and Whitfield (17.5).
*May is rapidly becoming Scott Miller's favorite month of the year.
The Hemet, Calif., saddle bronc rider was the only double winner on the California Circuit over the May 8-11 weekend. Miller won at the Mother Lode Round-up in Sonora with an 80-point ride on Growney Brothers' Bitter Root and claimed the Woodlake Lions PRCA Rodeo with an 81-pointer on Rosser Rodeo Company's Hail Mary.
It brings him into the May 14-16 Redding Rodeo - where he is the defending champion - with a nice bit of momentum.
Ty Murray to compete in Dancing With the Stars semifinals tonight
Fans spoke to ABC with thousands of text messages, online voting and phone calls. The “King of the Cowboys,” Ty Murray, has advanced into tonight's semifinal round of the network’s reality show Dancing With the Stars.
Murray and professional dance partner Chelsie Hightower were spared from elimination in the final minutes of the May 5 results show. Instead, rapper Lil’ Kim and Derek Hough, last season’s pro winner, were sent home.
“I think everybody underestimated the power of rodeo and bull riding fans in America,” said a pleased-but-tired Murray via telephone from Los Angeles.
Murray is glad to still be in the competition because the widely-popular show gives him a platform and an audience to talk to about rodeo, ranching and bull riding.
“At first, people would make fun of it,” said Murray, who owns a 2,100-acre ranch in Stephenville, Texas. “But they’re coming around. We’re talking about being in front of 20-30 million people every (Monday and Tuesday). We knew it was going to be huge, and I think it has done everything and beyond (our expectations) for rodeo and the sport of bull riding.”
The cowboy’s kindness and self-effacing personality generated “get-out-the-vote-for Ty” e-mail chains among rodeo fans. He clearly claimed the popular vote ahead of Lil’Kim since he advanced to the semis, despite receiving the lowest combined judges’ score of the five celebrity contestants. The decision as to who is eliminated each week and who advances is half-determined by public vote and half by judges’ total score.
Murray, described by a judge as one of the series most “likeable” participants, will compete in the show’s semifinals against three other celebrities and their pro partners. Another pair will be eliminated and then the three remaining teams will dance off for the “Mirror Ball Trophy” in the finals on May 18, followed by the results show on May 19.
Mesquite Championship Rodeo to resume weekly series June 5
Camelot Sports and Entertainment, the new owners of the Mesquite (Texas) Championship Rodeo series, has canceled all Friday and Saturday night programs for the next month so that work on a $1.4 million upgrade to Resistol Arena can be completed that will include two jumbo video boards, remodeled suites and a private club. The weekly rodeo series will resume on June 5 and continue through Aug. 28.
Kamloops Spring Rodeo has cameo role in Flicka 2
The crew from the upcoming movie Flicka 2, which had been filming in the British Columbia for the past couple of months, used the Kamloops Spring Rodeo for its wrap-up party May 10, as well as to shoot some final scenes. The film stars country singer Clint Black and comic actor Patrick Warburton, best known for his voiceover work on “Family Guy.”
Garrett to be inducted into Wyoming Sports Hall of Fame
Four-time World Champion Bareback Rider Marvin Garrett will be inducted into the Wyoming Sports Hall of Fame June 27 in Casper, joining former National Football League offensive lineman Nick Bebout, wrestler Ray Sanchez and high school football coach Jerry Fullmer. Garrett, born in Alladin, in northeast Wyoming, qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 12 times, winning the NFR average twice (1988, 1995) and world championships in 1988-89 and 1994-95. He was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1998.
Idaho's oldest professional rodeo canceled for 2009
Citing economic concerns, the organizing committee for the War Bonnet Rodeo in Idaho Falls, Idaho - founded in 1911 - has put the event on what it believes will be a one-year hiatus, canceling its traditional dates on the last weekend of July. "To ask (local) businesses to step up and contribute like they in past years would be unfair," Committee Chairman Dennis Marshal told KPVI-TV, "and could impact them with a real hardship
Upcoming PRCA Rodeos
May 13 Santa Rosa Round Up, Vernon, Texas, begins
May 14 Redding Rodeo, Redding, Calif., begins
May 14 Franklin (Tenn.) Rodeo, begins
May 15 Abbyville (Kan.) Frontier Days Rodeo & BBQ, begins
May 15 Panola County Cattlemen's PRCA Rodeo, Carthage, Texas, begins
May 15 Payson (Ariz.) Spring Rodeo, begins
May 15 San Augustine County PRCA Rodeo, San Augustine, Texas, begins
May 15 Helldorado Days Rodeo, Las Vegas, Nev., begins
May 16 Rowell Ranch Rodeo, Hayward, Calif., begins
May 16 Falkland (British Columbia) Stampede, begins
May 16 Luxton Pro Rodeo, Victoria, British Columbia, begins
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