By Brett Hoffman
Pro rodeo goes indoors in dramatic fashion at the beginning of each year.
The sport traditionally campaigns in venues ranging from the aged Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in Fort Worth to the newer Reliant Stadium in Houston, which hosted the 2004 Super Bowl.
They are the called the winter stock show rodeos and they also offer big bucks to the tougher competitors of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
They also are called the “Building Rodeos” and they traditionally began last weekend.
For example, the SandHills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa kicked off over the past weekend and four more rodeo performances are scheduled this weekend.
For more information, visit sandhillsstockshowandrodeo.com. The famous National Western Stock Show Rodeo in Denver began Saturday and runs through Jan. 24.
After Denver, competitors migrate to the Fort Worth Stock Show’s PRCA rodeo that’s scheduled for Jan. 22-Feb. 7. Cowboys move to the Feb. 4-21 San Antonio Stock Show Rodeo and the winter run traditionally ends with RodeoHouston (March 2-21).
“They’re all older rodeos and their legacy is a fresh start on the new year,” said Susan Kanode, who helps handle media relations for the Fort Worth, Denver and San Antonio shows. “It’s very prestigious to win one of them.”
The Denver, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston rodeos are referred to as the “Big Four,” meaning they’re traditionally larger winter shows in prize money, number of performances and attendance. They’re in a tier above other higher-paying enclosed winter rodeos in cities such as Odessa, San Angelo and Rapid City, S.D.
A strong finish at a winter rodeo will punch a cowboy’s ticket to the December Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. A single event win in Fort Worth, Denver or San Antonio can be worth $10,000 to $20,000, a giant leap considering that it could take between $55,000 and $65,000 to qualify for the National Finals.
At the Houston Rodeo, each event winner pockets $50,000, plus prelim round earnings. A $55,000 to $60,000 victory in Houston alone can advance a cowboy to the NFR.
PBR update — Shane Proctor of Grand Coulee, Wash., won the Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series tour stop last weekend in New York and earned $48,205. McKennon Wimberly of Cool finished fourth ($7,820).
J.B. Mauney became the first to make a Ford Series qualified ride aboard Code Blue, the 2009 PBR World Champion Bull. Mauney received a so-so score of 76.25 after hanging on from the side at the end of the ride, but staying on for the eight-second count helped the star finish third overall ($9,109) and move to No. 1 in the world standings.
The PBR’s top riders will be in Arlington next month to compete in The Dickies Iron Cowboy Invitational scheduled for Feb. 20 at Cowboys Stadium. The bull riding will follow a Gary Allan country/western music concert. For information, visit www.pbrnow.com.
Pocatello bound — Hunter Cure, a former Texas Tech star who lives in Holliday, is making headlines these days. Last month, Cure competed in his first National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Last weekend, he earned a spot in the April Dodge National Circuit Finals as the result of winning the average at the Texas Circuit Finals in Waco.
Other cowboys who advanced on the basis of finishing with the best aggregate results were bareback rider Chris Harris, team ropers David Key and Rich Skelton, tie-down roper Justin Maass, bull rider Beau Schroeder, barrel racer Janna Beam (48.79 seconds on three runs), and saddle bronc rider Mike Outhier.
Finals bound — After a making two attention-grabbing bareback bronc rides last weekend at the National Western Stock Show Rodeo in Denver, Ryan Gray is expected to advance to rodeo’s Jan. 24th finals.
Gray, a former Texas Tech star who has homes in Cheney, Wash., and the West Texas town of Petersburg, had an 86-point ride during the Jan. 9 performance and followed it up with an 85 during the Jan 10 show. His two-ride aggregate score of 171 should be plenty to advance the former National Finals qualifier to the short go.
The 12 contestants with the highest total score on two rides or runs make it back to the finals.
At last year’s Denver Rodeo, contestants with a total of 160 points qualified for the finals, so Gray is definitely looking good. He shared the title here in 2005, the first year he qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
