ProRodeo Sports News - March 3, 2023

EDITOR’S LETTER TRACY RENCK

2023 PRCA ProRodeo season slowly coming into shape

R When the calendar turned to Oct. 1, the 2023 ProRodeo season began. At that point everything was blurry. New and old cowboys are cracking back out to try and get to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, while cowboys who qualified for the 2022 NFR were trying to stay in shape and be ready for December in Las Vegas at theThomas & Mack Center. Fast-forward to the last week of March and the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings will start to take shape. That’s because RODEOHOUSTON®, which has a nearly $2 million payout, concludes March 19 and Rodeo Austin concludes on March 25. Rodeo Austin’s payout was just under $500,000 in 2022. A year ago, every winner at RodeoHouston – bareback rider Jess Pope, steer wrestler Hunter Cure, team ropers Clay Tryan/Jake Long, saddle bronc rider Sage Newman, tie down roper John Douch, barrel racer Jordon Briggs and bull rider StetsonWright all qualified for the NFR. It is worth noting that Tryan and Long swapped partners in June and roped with Jade Corkill and Clay Smith, respectively at the NFR.

and unusual circumstances, the PRCAmade the decision to take 16 bull riders to the 2022 NFR – eight percent of those contestants were winners in Houston and Austin. That number could easily rise to 10 percent in 2023. That’s why the winter run into the early spring is so important to contestants. A strong winter/spring run puts contestants in the driver’s seat to make the NFR and have the financial resources to go down the road the rest of the season. Also, what makes the PRCA regular season great is it pays better than ever. So, if a contestant has a rough winter there are still countless rodeos to make up ground. There’s the lucrative Cowboy Christmas run in late June and into the first week of July. Then, there’s the NFR Open powered by RAM, July 11-15 in Colorado Springs, Colo., which will have $1 million in payouts to contestants, stock contractors and other PRCAmembers. And don’t forget, for contestants making a frantic push to Vegas there’s the Cinch Playoffs that will play a bigger role than ever before in deciding who makes it to the NFR with a payout of more than $1 million on the final weekend of the 2023 season. The Cinch Playoffs will have athletes competing for the Governor’s Cup and vying for the more than $1 million purse, Sept. 28-30, 2023, at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, S.D. It will be the richest rodeo in South Dakota history

Tracy Renck is the editor of the ProRodeo

Sports News . He previously served more than seven years as a media coordinator at the PRCA. He has three decades of experience in sports journalism with the last several consumed by ProRodeo.

Wright won the most money at a PRCA regular season rodeo (counting toward the world standings) when he left Houston last year after pocketing $73,750 in saddle bronc riding and bull riding. At Rodeo Austin, winners – bareback rider Caleb Bennett, and tie-down roper Shad Mayfield and bull rider Wright – qualified for the Wrangler NFR. By quick math of the 121 qualifiers to the 2022 NFR – due to unique

and certainly shake up the list of NFR qualifiers as it ends the final day of the season. The fun has just begun as we watch the 2023 ProRodeo season unfold.

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ProRodeo Sports News 3/3/2023

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