ProRodeo Sports News - June 28, 2019

COWBOY CHRISTMAS PREVIEW

cowboy winning another gold buckle. One of PRCA’s busiest weeks can alter hopes Holiday Dreams Dan Hubbell photo With $31,014 earned, bareback rider Tim O’Connell won more money during Cowboy Christmas in 2018 than anyone else in the PRCA. He went on to win the 2018 world title by a margin of $65,067.

BY MATT NABER T he smell of barbecue fills the air as the summer night skies are lit up by rodeo arenas across North America. Cowboys running on caffeine and a lifelong dream of winning a gold buckle hit the road and take to the skies as they compete at multiple rodeos every day for about two weeks. Cowboy Christmas can be the most joyous time of the year with season-changing prize money earned in a short time that could turn into a big step toward the life-changing experience of qualifying for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Bareback rider TimO’Connell won more money than anyone in the PRCA during the 2018 Cowboy Christmas run and went on to win his third consecutive world title. Although the $31,014 he won during Cowboy Christmas didn’t immediately push him from second to first in the 2018 PRCA | RAMWorld Standings, it brought him within $328 of claiming the top spot and every dollar earned counted toward the Iowa

“It allowed me to close the gap and make up the ground I gave him (Caleb Bennett) in the winter,” O’Connell said. “I caught him in August and never looked back until around Round 7 or so (of the Wrangler NFR).” Winning big in a short amount of time requires a strategic plan of knowing “where you want to be and how you want to be,” O’Connell said. “I don’t go for long, but I make those five days really count,” O’Connell said. “We don’t go to as many as everyone else, we go to the right ones at the right time.” The element of luck held true on the timed-event side, as tie-down roper Cooper Martin experienced during Cowboy Christmas last year. “It actually wasn’t going that good, the beginning of the Fourth wasn’t worth a darn, but then it turned around and it was boom-boom-boom, and we were back-to-back at St. Paul and Cody,” Martin said. “It happened super fast, but it was amazing because it wasn’t going that great, but it all changed with one rodeo. I think not doing good at the beginning made me

ProRodeo Sports News 6/28/2019

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