With the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association season in its final week of the season leading up to the Canadian Finals Rodeo, several races remain stoked with drama as a number of CFR qualifying positions are still undecided.
Steer wrestling is one event where both the top and bottom of the standings are a dogfight. Ryan Shuckburgh came into the second last weekend of the regular season just $8000.00 behind four-time Champion Scott Guenthner. The Innisfail, AB cowboy got the win at the SMS Equipment Pro Tour stop in Lethbridge (3.7 seconds, $3219.03), then split the top honours at Okotoks with Quentin Branden (4.1 seconds, $1960.37 each) to move to within $3000.00 of the Provost, AB superstar Guenthner who is spending at least some of his time south of the 49th parallel vying for a return trip to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
And still in bulldogging, the scrap for the last couple of qualifying berths is equally heated as reigning World Champion JD Struxness, Landon Beardsworth and Layne Delemont occupy 10 through 12 with two-time champion Tanner Milan, Joe Guze, Craig Weisgerber and Branden all nipping at their heels. Struxness with $3900, Weisgerber with $3500, Delemont with $1800 and Guze with $1300 all did their best to keep the race to CFR ’51 in the nail biter category.
Nobody had a better weekend than barrel racer Blake Molle. The 2023 CFR qualifier rode her new equine acquisition to wins at the Okotoks Pro Rodeo (14.64 seconds, $3064.59), and Nanton (15.95 seconds, $2180.80) and added a second-place cheque at Lethbridge (15.10, $2548.81). Her $7700 haul will vault her from 19th going into the weekend all the way to the top ten in the standings heading to the all-important BC run.
And another race that will be interesting to keep an eye on is the bull riding where two-time Canadian Champion Edgar Durazo and challenger Jake Gardner’s season leader battle will go down to the wire with both enjoying $2700 weekends leaving Durazo atop the leaderboard with a slender $1100 lead. And just $3500 separates the number eight man from the number 13 man which means one of Lonnie West Dakota Buttar, Garrett Green, Lonnie Phillips, Auzyn Corr or Ashton Sahli could be on the outside looking in after the hugely lucrative three-event season finale.
Those three critical final stops of the CPRA regular season include the SMS Equipment Pro Tour Finals at the Armstrong IPE August 27-30, the Nicola Valley Pro Rodeo at Merritt, August 30 and 31 and the Valley West Stampede at Langley August 30-Sept 1 – all British Columbia events.
For complete unofficial results head over to rodeocanada.com.
About CPRA
The Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA) with headquarters in Airdrie, Alta. is the official sanctioning body for Professional Rodeo in Canada. The CPRA approves 60 + events annually with a total payout exceeding $7.4 million. The organization oversees the SMS Equipment Pro Tour Finale each fall in Armstrong, BC, holds their premiere event–the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR)–at Rogers Place in Edmonton in early October and endorses the Maple Leaf Circuit Finals as part of Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, Sask. For details, please see RodeoCanada.com
For more information:
Barb Poulsen
CPRA Communications and Media
Phone: 403 625-9225
Email: media@rodeocanada.com
Barb Poulsen
Media Relations
Canadian Professional Rodeo Association
1.403.625.9225 (cell)
1.403.625.2797 (direct)
1.403.945.0903 (CPRA office)