ProRodeo Sports News - September 1, 2023

this point they have gone exactly to plan, but he knows the work is far from done. “Obviously the first goal was to make the NFR, the second was to win $150,000, and the next one was to break the earnings record,” Massey said. “A guy would love the chance to come back No. 1 to Las Vegas. I’m just trying to prove every time I get a chance that I’m supposed to be there.” These ProRodeo Records are made to be broken – even if it’s by the same person.

the direction this sport is headed.” Patterson, a four-time qualifier to the NFSR, won his lone PRCA Steer Roping World Championship in 2021. He finished that season with $190,242, a single-season steer roping earnings mark. That year he also earned a National Finals Steer Roping-record $85,726. A year ago, Patterson finished second in the world standings to J. Tom Fisher. This year Patterson has two

“Obviously the first goal was to make the NFR, the second was to win $150,000, and the next one was to break the earnings record. A guy would love the chance to come back No. 1 to Las Vegas.” – DALTON MASSEY

main horses, Dunny, 12, and Tigger, 18. Dunny was the 2019 PRCA Steer Roping Horse of the Year and Tigger claimed the same honor in 2021. “I think a key to my (2023) season is that I had a lot of luck at some of the bigger stand-alone events early in the year and that’s really where a good majority (of the steer roping regular season) money comes from because this time of year it gets pretty hard to come by,” Patterson said. Patterson wants to keep adding to his 2023 regular-season total, but he knows to get another gold buckle it is going to come done to how he competes at the NFSR on Nov. 17-18 at the Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane. “The money has gotten so good at our Finals that there is really no way to win the world anymore without having a good Finals,” Patterson said.

For the second time in three years, Cole Patterson has broken the record for the most money won by a steer roper in the PRCA regular season before the National Finals Steer Roping. As of Aug. 31, the Pratt, Kan., cowboy is atop the PRCA | RAM World Standings with $104,756, eclipsing the record of $104,516 he initially set in 2021. The 2023 PRCA regular season ends on Sept. 30. “It is always cool to see records get broken,” said Patterson, 28. “I definitely think this says a lot about where steer roping and the PRCA are headed. There’s probably going to be three guys who are going to get past the old record (of $89,427 set by Tuf Cooper in 2018). It says something about

Phillip Kitts photo Cole Patterson captured the steer roping title at the Woodward (Okla.) Elks Rodeo earlier this season and pocketed $6,552. That money helped him break his previous PRCA regular season earnings record.

ProRodeo Sports News 9/1/2023

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