PRETTY IN PINK!

TOUGH ENOUGH TO WEAR PINK NIGHT AT THE WRANGLER NFR
Tonight is Tough Enough to Wear Pink Night at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, when contestants, PRCA officials and fans join forces against the scourge of breast cancer. This is the fifth anniversary of the Wrangler NFR’s involvement in the Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign, which has raised more than $5 million for cancer research and educational campaigns to encourage testing. The national anthem will be sung tonight by the LoCash Cowboys and Juice Newton will perform during the opening ceremonies. The performance sponsor tonight is Montana Silversmiths.

ROUND 7 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
Trevor Brazile finished second in the tie-down roping Tuesday night to 2004 World Champion Monty Lewis and earned $13,546 to take control of his own destiny as he bids for his second gold buckle in that event. Brazile has a lead of $36,529 over second place Clint Robinson and is eighth in the average race while Robinson dropped to 11th after failing to record a time Tuesday. Cody Ohl is third, more than $54,000 behind Brazile. With total money of $324,664, Brazile’s lead in the all-around standings rose to $142,749 over second-place Robinson, officially eliminating Robinson from gold buckle contention in the all-around. Only Josh Peek has a mathematical chance of catching Brazile – albeit a slight one – and preventing him from winning a seventh all-around world championship to equal the record held by Ty Murray. Peek is in third place, $146,311 behind Brazile, but has maximum potential earnings of $225,020 if he were to win all four of the remaining rounds of both the steer wrestling and tie-down roping and the average title in both events; he is fifth 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 Thursday night. Reigning World Champion Bull Rider J.W. Harris, who broke his right (riding) hand on Dec. 4, is also out tonight and Thursday night, with an option to come back for the last two rounds. Fellow bull rider Zack Oakes is listed as probable tonight with a sprained right wrist.
* Team roping header Chad Masters, who broke the regular-season earnings record in his event this year, bounced back from three consecutive no-times at the Wrangler NFR with partner Jade Corkill to earn second place on Tuesday night and regain first place in the world standings. Masters surged past Luke Brown in the header standings with total money of $144,059 to Brown’s $140,274. Corkill widened his lead in the heeling standings to $6,012 over second-place Kollin VonAhn. Still, Masters and Corkill will need a few more big paydays like that to have a shot at keeping those leads. They are just 12th in the average.
* The bull riders have been upstaged by their four-footed rivals the past two days, managing just one qualified ride in 30 attempts, unprecedented in the 51 year history of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Corey Navarre was only cowboy to complete an eight-second ride on Tuesday and his score of 70.5 points, was the lowest winning score at the NFR since 1970 when the scoring evaluations were systematically lower and four round winners had scores of 70 points or lower, including one by ProRodeo Hall of Fame cowboy Larry Mahan. Bob Steiner won both the first and fourth rounds that year with scores of 70 while Mahan won the eighth round with a 67 and Ken Stanton the ninth with a 69.
* Tightest race of the rodeo is to be found in the barrel racing competition. Brittany Pozzi’s lead in the world standings over defending champion Lindsay Sears has shrunk to $5,432 and Sears is second in the average to Pozzi’s third. Two-time World Champion Sherry Cervi leads the average standings.
* Two-time World Champion Bareback Rider Bobby Mote is making a rousing run at No. 3. He has already made up more than $42,000 of Clint Cannon’s huge pre-NFR lead and is first in the average. Cannon, who broke the regular-season earnings record for any individual event with $233,504, has earned just one check thus far (a tie for fifth in the first round) and is 13th in the average.
* Bareback rider Steven Peebles of Redmond, Ore., draws Carr Pro Rodeo’s River Boat Annie in one of the night’s more intriguing matchups. Cannon rode River Boat Annie for 89 points to win the final round of the Heartland ProRodeo Championships in Waco, Texas, two months ago. Jared Smith of Williston, Fla., will get Dusty Dan tonight, the horse Kaycee Feild rode for 89 points and the win in Round 2 of the Wrangler NFR. In the saddle bronc riding, Justin Boots Championships winner Isaac Diaz draws Andrews Rodeo’s Lock & Load, which took J.J. Elshere to a winning 89.5-point ride here in Round 2.
* Texas rodeo producer and roper Bobby (Booger) Barter, a PRCA member since 1987, died Dec. 8 at his Athens, Texas, home of undisclosed causes, according to reports posted by worldteamroping.com and the Athens (Texas) Daily Review.