| Courtesy PRCA: Trevor Brazile was the top earner of the Fourth of July run, also known as “Cowboy Christmas.” The eleven-time world champion from Decatur, Texas, won $24,253 at six rodeos. The biggest paycheck for the tie-down roper and team roper was at the Cody (Wyo.) Stampede where he won $10,626. Three-time and reigning World Champion Bareback Rider Bobby Mote was the top roughstock earner with $22,091. |
1. Trevor Brazile $24,253
2. Bobby Mote 22,091
3. Lindsay Sears 21,459
4. Tuf Cooper 19,381
5. Curtis Cassidy 19,172
6. Lisa Lockhart 17,957
7. Will Lowe 17,508
8. Dustin Flundra 16,614
9. Jeff Willert 16,405
10. Brenda Mays 16,370
11. Jesse Bail 16,286
12. Dusty LaValley 16,209
13. Brady Minor 15,916
Riley Minor 15,916
15. Kelly Timberman 15,803
16. Ty Elliott 15,244
17. Heith DeMoss 15,135
18. Sheena Robbins 15,121
19. Jill Moody 15,071
20. Britany Fleck 14,234
21. Jason Havens 14,197
22. Patrick Smith 14,189
23. Beau Schroeder 13,965
24. Brittany Pozzi 13,390
25. Jerrad Hofstetter 13,295
|
Brazile travels more than 6,500 miles to become King of Cowboy Christmas
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The only truly surprising thing about 11-time World Champion Trevor Brazile winning the most money during this year’s Fourth of July week – if you ignore that he’s been nursing an injured right (roping) elbow – is that he hasn’t done it more often.
Over the last decade, Brazile has been among the top 10 earners during Cowboy Christmas six times and only finished first once before, in 2006.
Brazile earned checks in six of the nine rodeos he entered last week to finish with $24,253, edging three-time and reigning World Champion Bareback Rider Bobby Mote by $2,162.
Talk about consistency: Brazile has averaged $24,085 over the last three Independence Day runs. His winning total was just $63 more than he had last year and just $641 off his career best in 2006.
It was a road trip of more than 6,500 miles for Brazile that took him from his Texas home to Ponoka and Airdrie, Alberta, then on to Prescott, Ariz.; St. Paul, Ore.; Molalla, Ore.; Cody, Wyo.; Livingston, Mont.; Red Lodge, Mont.; and Oakley City, Utah.
He earned his biggest check of $10,626 as the all-around champion of the Cody Stampede, a Wrangler Million Dollar Tour Gold rodeo presented by Justin Boots. He won a round of the team roping there with Patrick Smith and finished one-tenth of a second behind Nate Baldwin in the tie-down roping two-head average.
At Red Lodge, Brazile and Smith shared the team roping title with Caleb Mitchell and Casey Chamberlain with a time of 4.4 seconds. Brazile tied Cimarron Boardman for the tie-down roping title, each completing runs of 7.4 seconds.
Brazile finished with $10,064 in tie-down roping earnings, and Brazile/Smith had $14,189 each in team roping. That team roping total was good enough to put Smith 22nd in Cowboy Christmas earnings. Forty-eight contestants earned more than $10,000 for the week.
Mote, the overall Cowboy Christmas money leader a year ago, had his best results north of the border. He won the first round and the average at the Ponoka Stampede, then finished second to Dusty LaValley in the Showdown Round to earn $11,236 there and won another $2,518 in Airdrie, Alberta, on his way to earning $22,091 for the week.
Barrel racer Lindsay Sears was the only other competitor to surpass $20,000 for the week, finishing with $21,459. Tuf Cooper ($19,381) and Curtis Cassidy ($19,172) rounded out the top five.
Cooper got the week off to a great start with a win in the Ponoka Stampede which he would later describe as “the biggest regular-season rodeo I ever won.”
For Cassidy, this would stand as the biggest Cowboy Christmas he’s ever had. By a bunch.
“I also finished in the crying hole at St. Paul (Ore.) and Airdrie,” he said. “It’s been a really good week for me. I think the most I ever won is like $4,000 or $5,000 over the July holiday week.
“This was more the kind of Cowboy Christmas everybody talks about.”
|
For comments and information please email us at: prorodeo@prorodeo.com | For technical questions email: webmaster@prorodeo.com