ProRodeo Sports News - Dec. 20, 2019

RAM TOP GUN AWARD

Bareback rider Clayton Biglow took a ride around the Thomas & Mack Center after winning the RAM Top Gun Award, Dec. 14, thanks to earning $243,891 at the 2019 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. PRCA ProRodeo photo by Dan Hubbell

‘Goal set,goal achieved’

Clayton Biglow captures RAM Top Gun Award

BY AMBER BAILLIE A long with earning his first average and world titles in his fourth consecutive Wrangler National Finals Rodeo,

wouldn’t want it any other way. This is how I planned it.” The last bareback rider to win the Top Gun award was 2015 world champion Steven Peebles. “The cool thing is I traveled with

Steven Peebles and rode in his Top Gun truck,” Biglow said. “That’s easy motivation right there. Steven is a huge mentor of mine. I look up to him and I’ve been wanting to ride like him forever.” Because Biglow had the same aspiration as Peebles, Biglow went straight to the source for advice. “I talked to Steven a lot and asked him, ‘How was your mindset coming into it? What did you focus on the most?’ I picked his brain a lot because that’s what I wanted,” Biglow said. Biglow earned his first gold buckle after winning five rounds, one short of the bareback riding record of six set by Kaycee Feild in 2011. He also made history by becoming the first bareback rider to win four consecutive rounds at the Wrangler NFR, winning Rounds 5 through 8, including a three-way split in Round 6. “Everyone at the NFR is so great, there’s a reason they’re all here,” he said. “I don’t have any strengths any more than the next guy. I think every guy who made the Finals could be a world champion. We’re all alike, we’re all buddies and all try to win first every time.” It was an exciting race for the 10th RAMTop Gun Award with Biglow in the No. 1 spot with $243,891, followed by six-time world champion bull rider Sage Kimzey with $217,942, bull rider Boudreaux Campbell with $203,135 and 2019 saddle bronc riding average champion Brody Cress with $180,500. “To be first in Top Gun, to have the most money won, is something that I will never forget,” Biglow said.

bareback rider Clayton Biglow also claimed the RAMTop Gun Award after earning $243,891 over 10 rounds during the Finals, Dec. 5-14. The top honor was created in 2010 and is given to the contestant who wins the most money at the Wrangler NFR in one event. Of the 10 recipients so far, Biglow has raked in the most money. “Winning the Top Gun award was a top goal,” said Biglow, 23. “It was something I fell back to. Amonth or two before the Finals, I was thinking about the world title every single night and it was psyching me out a bit. So I told myself, ‘Just go out there and win Top Gun because that is going to conquer your world title.”’ As the winner, the Clements, Calif., cowboy received a 2020 RAM 3500 Heavy Duty Truck, a one-of-a-kind RAMTop Gun-branded revolver fromCommemorative Firearms and a custom Top Gun buckle from Montana Silversmiths. “I told my fiancée if I win, you get a new truck … so darn it, I lost my truck,” Biglow laughed. Everything that comes with the accolade is deserving, he said. “If you show up at the NFR and win the most money out of everyone, you deserve a truck,” Biglow said. “It’s such a big accomplishment, I don’t know if a buckle would cut it.” Biglow’s Round 8 victory, which earned him $26,231, pushed him to $137,064 inWrangler NFR earnings and put him atop the RAMTop Gun standings where he remained the rest of the rodeo. “It’s huge, not only that I won out of the bareback riders, but out of the whole rodeo is a dream come true,” he said. “Goal set, goal achieved. I

ProRodeo Sports News 12/20/2019

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