2020 Media Guide - National Finals Rodeo

About the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo The Wrangler NFR is the season-ending championship event for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and is widely acknowledged to be the world’s premier rodeo. Held annually since 1959 – and since 1985, at the Thomas & Mack Center every December in Las Vegas – the Wrangler NFR showcases the very best cowboys, barrel racers and livestock in the world. The contract signedwith Las Vegas Events in 2015 keeps the Finals in Las Vegas through 2024 and raises prize money significantly over that decade. It is telecasted live on RFD-TV and The Cowboy Channel. The Top 15 contestants in the standard rodeo events – bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping (headers and heelers), saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping,WPRA barrel racing and bull riding – qualify to compete at theWrangler NFR based on money won during the regular season, including earnings from the Wrangler PRORODEO Tour, RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo and PRCA Xtreme Bulls Tour. At the conclusion of the Wrangler NFR, the sport’s world champions are determined based on total season earnings (money earned at the Finals plus earnings during the regular season). The Wrangler NFR consists of 10 rounds (one round on each of the 10 consecutive days with each contestant competing once a day). Cowboys and cowgirls earn money by placing first through sixth in any round, and pick up more money by placing first through eighth in the average (cumulative times or points earned during the 10 rounds). At the end of everyWrangler NFR, there are two champions in each event (four for team roping): the average winner, who won the Wrangler NFR (by having the best cumulative time or score over the 10 rounds) and the world champion (who finished the year with the most money, including what he or she earned at theWrangler NFR). For each event, the average winner and world champion may be the same person or different people. • StetsonWright won his first all-around world championship with $297,923, becoming the first rookie and youngest cowboy at age 20 to win the prestigious title. He also became the first roughstock rider to capture the honor since ProRodeo Hall of Famer Ty Murray in 1998. • Bull rider Sage Kimzey picked up his sixth consecutiveworld title, finishing the seasonwith a PRCA bull riding -record of $480,797. He broke his 2017 record of $436,479 and also won the average with 709 points on eight head. Kimzey tied JimShoulders’ record for consecutive bull ridingworld championships; Don Gay holds the PRCA record for most bull riding world titles with eight. • 2019 PRCA | Resistol Rookie of the Year Haven Meged earned his first tie-down roping gold buckle with $246,013 and also won the average with an 85.7-second time on 10 head. The Miles City, Mont., cowboy edged Shane Hanchey by $1,181 for theworld title and became the first cowboy fromMontana to claim a PRCA tie-down roping world title. • Clayton Biglow took home his first bareback riding gold buckle after winning five rounds at theWrangler NFR, including Round 10 with an NFR record-tying ride of 93 points on Northcott Macza’s Stevie Knicks. The Clements, Calif., cowboy alsowon the average and earned $243,891 at the Finals.That total was the most money earned of any contestant at theWrangler NFR (not counting ground money) and earned him the RAMTop Gun Award. Additionally, Biglow set a bareback riding record for most money won in a regular season counting theWrangler NFR with $425,843. The record was $374,272 by TimO’Connell in 2016. 2019Wrangler NFR highlights

• ZekeThurston captured his second saddle bronc ridingworld title (hewon his first in 2016) by earning $347,056, another season-total record, breaking the mark of $284,938 set by Ryder Wright in 2017.

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WRANGLER NFR RECORDS AND HISTORY