ProRodeo Sports News - 2021 Year End Edition

RAM NATIONAL CIRCUIT FINALS

Herrin was full of praise for Rambo, the 2014 PRCA Tie-Down Roping Horse of the Year. Last year with Rambo, Herrin finished fourth in the world standings with $188,895. Herrin earned $142,846 at the 2020Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, behind only Shane Hanchey’s $143,692. CHAMPION GETS FIRST RAM NCFR WIN Standout bareback rider Richmond Champion can check something off his career bucket list – a RAMNCFR title. Champion won the event with an 87-point ride on Vold Rodeo’s Risky Mistress. He earned a total of $15,010 for his performance at the RAM NCFR. “I didn’t know a whole lot about that horse,” Champion said. “Tanner Aus had her at the Riggin Rally (the first weekend of April inWeathford, Texas), and she had stumbled, but he said she was really fun, and she was. It’s amazing to win this rodeo. Anytime you go to a rodeo it’s your goal to win. The (RAM) Circuit Finals is a big win. This is a saddle you want in your house and a buckle you want on your belt. I’m super grateful have it.” Champion climbed to third in the world standings with $37,654. GUENTHNER JUMPS TO THIRD Scott Guenthner had made three consecutive National Finals Rodeo qualifications. The Provost, Alberta, steer wrestling was hoping for No. 4 last season, but then COVID-19 hit and rodeos shut down. Guenthner wasn’t able to get back across the border to compete until July 1. That hasn’t been the case this season, and it’s showing. Guenthner clocked a time of 3.6 seconds in the finals of the RAM NCFR, April 10 to walk away with $16,805. “It’s huge. We definitely have a long year left and have a long way to go to make the NFR, but this is definitely a big boost,” said Guenthner, who moved to third in the world standings with $27,813. Guenthner was riding fellow Canadian Curtis Cassidy’s horse Tyson. “He’s amazing,” Guenthner said of the reigning Purina Horse of the Year. “He lets you think all about your job. He gets you in the corner and that’s where he is – he doesn’t move, he doesn’t budge – he’s awesome.” This season has been slightly easier to prepare for, unlike in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. BREDING IN RARE COMPANY WITH FOURTH RNCFR WIN The RAMNational Circuit Finals Rodeo has nearly become a personal playground for bull rider Parker Breding. Breding made history when he became the first bull rider to win four career RAMNCFR championships after making an 86.5-point ride on Painted Pony Championship Rodeo’s Cocktail Diarrhea in the finals in Silver Spurs Arena. “That’s really special to me,” Breding said. “I haven’t done a whole lot of things any bigger than this. So far this rodeo kind of has been my small world title in a way. To be able to come here and get it done again is just amazing. I sure do love it here. They treat you really well, and this is one of my favorite rodeos by far.” Breding’s titles have come in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021. He also won the semifinals earlier Saturday with an 88-point ride on Big Rafter Rodeo’s Silver Bullet. “It’s hard to put into words what it means to get this done again,” said Breding, 28. “The way my week started things weren’t looking too good and I didn’t even think I made the semifinals until my traveling partner (Hawk Whitt) told me I did. He kind of withheld the information and let me walk around mad for a while and then he told me I was in there in the semis in the last spot. I had two awesome bulls, and I’m just extremely overwhelmed by this.” Breding earned $13,006 for his RAMNCFR performance, which helped himmove to 10th in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings.

Header Andrew Ward, right, and heeler Buddy Hawkins II took home nearly $20,000 apiece from the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo, April 10. Clay Guardipee photo

All in the Family Brothers-in-law snare team roping RAM NCFR glory

FINLAY ENJOYS EARLY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Jake Finlay has been close. He can quickly rattle off how close he’s been to qualifying for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. The 26-year-old celebrated his birthday a few days early when he won the final round of the RAMNational Circuit Finals Rodeo (and the semifinals) to more than double his 2021 season earnings. “It’s more important for my pocketbook (than the world standings),” joked Finlay, who grew up in Goondiwindi, Australia. “World standings-wise I don’t really try to look. I’ve gotten in the habit in years past of looking at them and I ended up 17th (in 2019) and 20th (in 2020), and I’ve not been in that (Top 15) bubble. I don’t really look at it, and it’ll all work out the same.” Finlay cashed in for $14,249 after posting an 88-point ride on Vold Rodeo’s Sun Glow in the finals at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Fla., April 10. He won the semifinals with an 86 on United Pro Rodeo’s Awesome Sauce. The money moved him to seventh in the April 13 PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with $20,502. HERRIN, RAMBO TEAM UP FOR WIN Teamed with his star horse Rambo, tie-down roper Hunter Herrin was in top form at the RAMNCFR. Herrin won the event in 7.8 seconds, earning $18,627 over the weekend. “This is the first time I’ve won this,” he said. “Here and San Angelo are the biggest licks before the summer, and it feels good to get a good win here. I didn’t make a very good run in the finals, if I’m going to be honest, I stood her up, she went down and I had to scoop her up. I won the first round on her with a 7.6. I was glad to be winning first when it was all said and done. Things just worked out in my favor.”

BY TRACY RENCK W hen brothers-in-law and team roping partners AndrewWard and Buddy Hawkins II arrived at the 2021 RAMNational Circuit Finals Rodeo they felt like they already had won. “We came out here and the victory has already happened as far as getting to spend a week out here (in Kissimmee),” Hawkins said. “We went to the beach with our family and got a little sunburn because all of us were out there with our farmer’s tans. We are just going to keep doing what we are doing.” That’s exactly what they did. Ward and Hawkins stopped the clock in 6.3 seconds in the four-team sudden-death finals to win the RAMNCFR and secure nearly $20,000 in earnings in the Silver Spurs Arena, April 10. The team ropers from the Prairie Circuit each scored a rodeo-best $19,705. “This is the dream,” Hawkins said. “We so appreciate Kissimmee for having this kind of event like this and adding this kind of money for us. This is what it’s about. We get to do what we want every day because of events like

this.” Hawkins andWard were outside the top 40 in their respective events. That’s not the case anymore. They each rocketed to fourth in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings in their respective events with $23,962. “All week we have just been trying to catch as fast as we could in the easiest way we know how,” Ward said. “The last one was harder yet because there’s more pressure on you maybe, but we are great at finishing and believing in ourselves.” Ward and Hawkins were second in the first round with a 5.2-second run, sixth in the second round in 5.1 seconds and third in the two-head average. They won the semifinals in 5.6 seconds and clinched the title in the finals. Their final two runs earned them $12,316 each. RAMNCFR glory is nothing new for Ward or Hawkins, but this is the first time they were victorious together. AndrewWard and his brother, Reagan, split the 2018 RAMNCFR title with Logan Olson and Matt Kastner. DrewHorner and Hawkins captured the RAMNCFR crown in 2015, and Jesse Stipes and Hawkins took home top honors in 2017.

ProRodeo Sports News 12/17/2021

ProRodeo Sports News 12/17/2021

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