Arena record pushes Peebles to Ellensburg Rodeo triumph
ELLENSBURG, Wash. – After splitting first place in the first round at the Wrangler Million Dollar Tour’s regular-season finale, bareback rider Steven Peebles knew he had a chance to win some big money during the Sept. 6 finals at the Ellensburg Rodeo Arena.
As things turned out, he won even more than he’d hoped for.
Peebles, 21, broke Jessy Davis’ four-year-old arena record with a 90-point ride on Calgary Stampede’s Mad Money to win the short round and the two-head average at the Gold Tour rodeo presented by Justin Boots.
“Man, it’s outstanding,” said Peebles, who picked up $1,650 for the short-round win and an additional $3,846 for winning the average to push his earnings to $8,893 for the weekend. “I’m happier than heck to break an arena record at a rodeo like this.”
In addition to the big check, Peebles and Calgary Stampede each received $4,500 for their contribution to the new arena record. (Peebles’ share is unofficial and doesn’t count toward the PRCA World Standings.)
“When I was crawling into the chute, I heard them talking about the bonus for the arena record,” Peebles said. “I listened and smiled and just looked down at my horse, because I knew I had the horsepower to do it. I just thought, ‘I’m going for it.’”
Ninety also turned out to be the magic number for saddle bronc rider Cody Wright, who entered Ellensburg in a similar position as Peebles: inside the Top 15 but looking to gain a little breathing room as the regular season enters its final weeks.
Wright stuck to Flying Five Rodeo’s Spring Planting for 90 points to defeat last year’s Ellensburg champ and reigning World Champion Jesse Kruse for the finals win and the two-head average.
Even though he was facing a familiar foe (including past matchups in Las Vegas and Pocatello, Idaho), Wright said the Flying Five horse threw him a little bit of a change-up in Ellensburg.
“She’s been awesome every time,” Wright said of Spring Planting. “I never had her have those moves, though. She was kind of back and forth out of the gate. She’s usually just around the post, jumping and kicking back around to the right. That’s an awesome horse. My hat’s off to her.”
Steer wrestler Billy Bugenig’s mission to qualify for his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo received a big boost in Ellensburg. The 29-year-old California cowboy’s 4.5-second run in the finals was good enough to split third place with Sean Mulligan and earn the top spot in the average and the $3,684 that came with it.
In team roping, the new partnership between Keven Daniel and Caleb Twisselman continued to pay dividends. A 6.3-second run in the finals proved to be enough to push them from third in the average to first and matching $4,046 checks.
Gold-buckle contenders Charly Crawford and Russell Cardoza (who won the all-around in Ellensburg) jumped from eighth place to second in the average Monday.
The team of Joel Bach and Paul Eaves of Millsap, Texas, set an arena record when they won the second round in 4.2 seconds, breaking the record of 4.5 seconds set by Chance Kelton and Bucky Campbell in 2002.
Seth Childers was a surprise contender in the tie-down roping coming into the Sept. 6 finals, and the Cameron, Texas, cowboy finished the job in Ellensburg. He finished third in the short round to defeat Wrangler NFR contenders Blair Burk and Clint Cooper by four-tenths of a second.
The bull riding was won by Tylee Lanham, whose 86-point ride on Corey & Horst’s Blue Northern (the bull who helped D.J. Domangue win the long round at Saturday night’s Xtreme Bulls Tour finale) was the only qualified ride in the short round.
The other champions at Ellensburg were steer roper Chet Herren (22.6 seconds on two head) and barrel racer Lindsay Sears (51.85 seconds on three runs).
