Oh Canada!

CANADIAN NIGHT AT THE WRANGLER NATIONAL FINALS RODEO
Canadian Night at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the annual tribute to the great tradition of rodeo in Canada, takes on added weight tonight with two contestants who compete under the maple leaf flag both strongly in contention to win their second world championships – steer wrestler Lee Graves and barrel racer Lindsay Sears. The United States national anthem will be sung tonight by the John Michael Montgomery and the Canadian national anthem will be performed by Sabina Peterman. The Priefert Percheron Hitch team will perform during the opening ceremonies. The performance sponsor tonight is Justin Boots.

ROUND 8 LIVE ON TELEVISION, RADIO AND INTERNET
Tonight’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo will be televised live on ESPN Classic at 7 p.m. (PT) with Jeff Medders, Butch Knowles, Joe Beaver, Stran Smith and Don Gay calling the action and Jennifer Smith handling the arena interviews. ProRodeo Live is airing coverage on a national network of radio stations and also online at www.prorodeolive.com with Steve Kenyon, Kelly Kaminski, Clint Corey and Wade Wheatley doing the announcing. ProRodeoLive.com is also doing a daily broadcast (11 a.m.-noon PT) of NFR Today from Cowboy Christmas, featuring interviews and rodeo news. All 10 rounds of the Wrangler NFR will also be broadcast on ESPN360.com. The Internet broadcast is available at no charge to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection from an ESPN360.com affiliated Internet service provider. ESPN360.com is also available to fans who have access to the Internet from U.S. college campuses and U.S. military bases.

THE TREVOR BRAZILE WATCH
Despite failing to earn a check on Thursday night, Trevor Brazile has a chance to clinch his record-tying seventh all-around world championship tonight. With total money of $324,664, Brazile’s lead in the all-around standings stands at $138,294 over second-place Josh Peek, the only cowboy with a mathematical chance of catching Brazile and preventing him from equaling the record held by Ty Murray. Peek has maximum potential earnings of $190,742 if he were to win all three of the remaining rounds of both the steer wrestling and tie-down roping and the average title in both events; he is third in the steer wrestling average and fourth in the tie-down roping. Brazile entered this 51st Wrangler NFR with nine world titles; should he hold his leads and win both the all-around and tie-down roping gold buckles, he would move into a tie for third place on the all-time list with Dean Oliver and Charmayne James. This is the sixth time that Brazile has qualified for the National Finals in three events (TR, TD, SR) in the same year, one short of the record held by Larry Mahan (1966-70, 1971, 1973). He has qualified for National Finals events 31 times, one short of Roy Cooper and Guy Allen in second place. Tee Woolman holds the record with 42 appearances.

WRANGLER NFR NOTES

* Bareback rider Royce Ford suffered a fracture of the lower right leg (fibula) on Tuesday night and is out for at least tonight and probably the remainder of the rodeo. Reigning World Champion Bull Rider J.W. Harris, who broke his right (riding) hand on Dec. 4, is also out tonight, with an option to come back for the last two rounds if he feels his lead in the world standings is threatened.
* If Harris holds on to win the world championship without winning any money at this 51st Wrangler NFR it would be the first time that that has happened since Bill Nelson won the gold buckle in 1971 with zero dollars in the NFR. Because of his injury in Round 2, Harris has not completed a qualified ride here and if that remains the same he would join Freckles Brown (1962) as the only bull riders ever to win a world championship without completing a ride in the NFR. Brown broke his neck in a wreck at a Portland, Ore., rodeo two months before the NFR in ’62 and was in waist-to-neck cast when the NFR was held in the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
* The team roping pair of Luke Brown, of Rock Hill, S.C., and Martin Lucero, of Stephenville, Texas, is making a run at one of the Wrangler NFR’s great records. Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper had a time of 59.1 seconds on 10 head in winning the 1994 NFR average title and only four teams in NFR history have managed a 10-head time of under 64 seconds. Brown and Lucero have completed seven rounds in 35.3 seconds, which means they need only average 7.93 seconds over their last three rounds to take over the record.
* Tuf Cooper is also making a run at Fred Whitfield’s 1997 tie-down roping record of 84.0 seconds on 10 head. Cooper has roped and tied seven calves in 59.2 seconds, which means he could tie record by averaging 8.3 seconds over his final three runs of the Wrangler NFR.
* Already the only cowboy to have $1 million in NFR earnings, saddle bronc rider Billy Etbauer’s win on Wednesday night made him the first contestant in Wrangler NFR history to have won 50 rounds during their career. Tie-down roper Cody Ohl is just $2,191 away from reaching the $1 million milestone in Wrangler NFR earnings.
* There have been four first-place ties in the first seven rounds of the bareback riding, which equals the record set in 1988, when the first, fifth, seventh and ninth rounds were all split. The last time any NFR event had five first-place ties was the 2003 team roping.
* No NFR bull rider has ever won the 10-head average with fewer than six rides (1998-99, 2002-04 and 2008). Only two cowboys, Corey Navarre and Bobby Welsh, have as many as four qualified rides through seven rounds.
* The ProRodeo League of Women’’s Luncheon surpassed $1 million in donations to the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund at its annual event, which has been held in conjunction with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo for the last 22 years. For more information, visit ProRodeo.com.
* Jason Havens, of Prineville, Ore., draws six-time and reigning USTTC Bareback Horse of the Year Grated Coconut of the Calgary Stampede string tonight. Standings leader Clint Cannon gets 2005 USTTC Bareback Horse of the Year Real Deal and D.V. Fennell has the 2001 USTTC Bareback Horse of the Year Cool Alley.
* Canadian steer wrestler Curtis Cassidy is closing in on the $1 million mark in career earnings. With total money of $28,842 thus far at the Wrangler NFR, Cassidy has put his career total at $967,329 with three rounds and the average checks still to be decided; he is second in the average standings. Bareback rider Kelly Timberman and team roper Travis Tryan have already surpassed the $1 million milestone in career earnings this week at the Wrangler NFR.