July is a prime month for rodeo folks to earn paychecks

Brett Hoffman

July is one busy month for pro rodeo competitors who frantically travel to an abundance of PRCA shows that offer lucrative payoffs.

Last weekend, the sport’s elite rode in Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association competitions in Salinas, Calif. (which offered a total purse of $387,840), and in Nampa, Idaho ($380,450).

And one cowgirl who cashed in at the traditional California Rodeo was 2007 world champion barrel racer Brittany Pharr of Victoria. Pharr earned $9,885 and capitulated into the lead in the world title race.

In the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association world standings, Pharr is ranked first with $102,972, $1,386 ahead of second ranked Mary Burger.

At the renowned Snake River Stampede in Nampa, Idaho, Tuf Cooper, who made headlines last year when he qualified for his first National Finals, earned $8,424 after finishing third in the tie-down roping average

Cooper also won the second round with an unusually fast time of 6.6 seconds.

The PRCA’s tie-down roping all-time record is 6.3, which was set in 2005 in Strathmore, Alberta, by former NFR qualifier Ricky Canton.

After all that fast roping, Cooper ranks fourth in the PRCA’s tie-down roping world title race with $58,781.

Cooper is the son of six-time tie-down roping world champion Roy Cooper and the grandson of veteran Tuffy Cooper who lives in the Hobbs, N.M., area. He’s also a grandson of early 1960s NFR qualifier Clifton Smith of Childress.

At a smaller rodeo in Woodward, Okla., Evan Jayne, a native of France who lives in Huntsville, won the bareback riding title. He turned in a score of 86 on the Beutler & Son Rodeo Company bronc Queen Molly and earned $2,394 for the win.



A determined cowboy — After facing three bulls at two lower tier Professional Bull Riders shows in South Texas on the weekend of July 10-12, world title race leader Kody Lostroh insisted that his nagging riding arm had mended.

The Longmont, Colo., cowboy had been sidelined for two months with a torn tendon in his left elbow.

However, Lostroh said he would be more than ready to compete when the Built Ford Tough Series resumed this past weekend in Tulsa, Okla., after the PBR’s top tier tour had been at rest since mid-May.

He wasn’t just talking. Lostroh clinched the Tulsa title after staying on three out of four bulls and earned $38,025.

The Tulsa show was the beginning of the final stretch of the regular season. At this point in the season, there are eight regular-season Ford Series shows remaining, plus the 2009 World Finals scheduled for 0ct. 30-Nov. 1 and Nov. 5-8 in Las Vegas.

The next BFTS tour stop is scheduled for Aug. 1-2 in San Antonio.

Lostroh previously entered shows in San Antonio and Gonzales. Though he stayed on only one of the three bulls, he claimed he was ready to make a run at the world title.

“Now that I know that my elbow feels good, I know can get out there and get after it,” Lostroh said.

In the world standings, Lostroh is ranked first with 9,280.75 points, 1282.50, ahead of second ranked Guilherme Marchi.



Cutting horse update — It was a tough finals night for even the most seasoned aged-event horses at the National Cutting Horse Association Summer Spectacular in Fort Worth.

Though a field of 28 talented 5- and 6-year-old mounts qualified for the Classic-Challenge open division finals on Monday night, only two broke into the 220s.

A gelding named Al Poocino and rider Paul Hansma of Weatherford, and a stallion called Thomas E Hughes, ridden by Alabama rider Austin Shepard, tied for the win with scores of 222.

The first-place split paid $37,439.