Ep. 99 - Round 6 National Finals Rodeo Recap 2021
Where the rough stock riders really shined in Round 5, our timed event contestants showed up in Round 6! The average race for the National Finals Rodeo in 2021 is starting to even out with out as many changes after each nightly performance but there is still a lot of shake up that can happen. We specifically look at the steer wrestling, bareback bronc riding and bull riding in this episode as we look to see who might just be our 2021 Rodeo World Champions and how a plethora of injuries are impacting rodeo!
Event Recap
Bareback Bronc Riding
Taylor Broussard had a freak injury at the start of the rodeo tonight in the bareback and was actually taken out on a stretcher. We already know that both Wade Sundell (saddle bronc) and Cody Devers (steer wrestling) have been medically disqualified for the remainder of the NFR for big injuries. Taylor Broussard would make it three contestants now disqualified.
After last night, it seemed like a tamed roughstock ride but Orin Larson’s ride wasn’t tame! Orin won the round tonight and it was the first time he’s been to the pay window this week. He’s scooting by and still in the average - this is the Orin that we are used to seeing. He’s 7th in the projected* average so he has to keep chipping away. A pair of 84 point rides for Caleb Bennet and Richmond Champion; Richmond is 5th in the projected* average. Caleb is down at 13th and is competing for the day money at this point.
Kaycee Feild’s had a great start to his ride but the horse slowed off which hurt him which dropped him down to projected* 2nd in the average behind Jess Pope. There is 2.5 points that currently separate them right now and, as we have said since Round 4 recap, it’s not just a “stay on for the average” it’s a “stay on and ride big” right now as there is a lot of scoreboard pressure.
As much as you aren’t seeing it in the leaders, there is a lot of movement in the projected* world right now for those just under the leaders. The biggest number that unofficially sticks out is that there are four riders that have gotten money in five of the six rounds so far: Cole Franks, Cole Reiner, Jess Pope & Kaycee Feild. What is hurting Jess Pope the most is the fact that R.C. Landingham and Clayton Bigelow tied Jess Pope for the 6th place hole - the last one to pay out. They added the 4th, 5th and 6th place payouts and divided it by three with them and that’s what hurting him the most.
If the rodeo were to end tonight we would have Kaycee Feild, Jess Pope, Tim O’Connell, and then Cole Reiner. This is a cool little race that we have happening right there.
Steer Wrestling
This has definitely been the tightest race from the start but, as Rachel’s notes said about Dakota Eldridge, “Damn!” Clayton Hass is hazing for him and there was a bit of a miscommunication and Dakota ran his run without a hazer! It really just cowboy’d up to make that happen.
There were a lot of 4 second and less runs tonight between Jacob Talley, Tyler Waguespack, Stetson Jorgensen, Stockton Graves and Dirk Tavenner with the 3.4 second run to win Round 6. Dirk has been fun to watch and if you haven’t been paying attention - you need too!
Dirk came in at the 9th hole and has taken money in 4 of the rounds but did have a broken barrier in the 3rd round. This is what we predicted in the pre-show as a multi-time NFR average winner to be doing big things. Steer wrestling was the closest top to bottom entering and with Jacob Talley, the man entering in the one slot, having the miss means that he has to get after the money each day.
Stockton Graves was actually on Dirk’s horse Oscar and Dirk was just as excited that Stockton had a great run and tied for second in tonight’s run on his horse. In the after run interview with Amy Wilson, he said, “He hauls balls” which made our team laugh when he said that.
Tyler Waguespack is a former world champion that is just chipping away but Dirk is projected* to be 1st, Tristan Martin who came in 14th as 2nd - in fact, after Round 5 he was projected* 1st and is 1st in the projected* average. What would it be like if the guy that came in in almost last place and won the world title?
Team Roping
An exciting race, it was crazy that after Round 5 where two 9 second runs got paid and then in Round 6 you had to be under 4.2 seconds to get paid. The team ropers came out with a vengeance from the jump with Cody Snow & Wesley Thorp at 4.3 seconds and it just started it off strong all the way through.
For the last four rounds it has been dominant with Kaleb Driggers in the number 1 spot for the tead race on our projected* number. We only have five teams that are still perfect in the average. There are a lot of pressure on Brentan Hall and Quinn Kessler teams because they are still in the average with one miss - it’s important for them to stay close. If, say, someone that is perfect misses after spending some extra time to stay perfect, means that those with one miss will be right there to move up.
Saddle Bronc Riding
Wade Sundell was injured in the grand entry last night when his horse bucked him off; the result was a fractured back that has him out for four to five months. We learned via a tweet by Matt Shizowa of the Wilderness Circuit that you are actually fined by the NFR if you don’t attend Grand Entry which is why so many of the contestants are in it but the bareback riders (first event).
Ben Andersen started the night out on a great ride! That was so fun to see! The Wrights were on the right track tonight and ended up 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Stetson and Ryder Wright are in a battle and that friendly family competition may be what is building up Stetson to be making those big rides in the bull riding like he did last night!
There was a great ride by Cody DeMoss who used his veteran skill and sheer core strength to save what almost was a buck off.
Sage Newman and then Kolby Wanchuk and Layton Green were right behind the Wright boys tonight to round off the round!
Tie Down Roping
Caleb Smidt is definitely making it interesting which is exciting after he missed the 2020 NFR after testing positive for COVID.
Shad Mayfield was out quick and had to go for his second rope and then he and his horse kind of got tangled up in it so he made the right decision to cut the rope off to protect his horse. That was a big move for him and spoke to him as a horsemen who decided to protect his horse rather than try to stay good in the average. He has missed one time already and was probably trying to protect that with the second rope in the case that others started to miss with pressure here at the end.
Taylor Santos had an A+ for effort tonight because after throwing his first loop, by the time he gets to the calf the rope is off so he tries to hold on by the tail but the calf gets away. He hustles back to his horse and gets the second loop on the calf but was JUST short of being able to get it done in the 25 second time limit. It has been fun to watch Taylor at this NFR compared to when we provided commentary on his first NFR in 2019. He made such a bid for the average and the world title which was just so fun and exciting.
Westyn Hughes got the round win on Shane Hanchey’s buckskin horse and Shane was on a gray horse owned by Connor Atkinson. According to Joe Beaver on the commentary it was about mixing it up and getting into a fresh rhythm.
Cory Solomon had a 7.1 second run, Marty Yates had a great run - it’s awesome to see these guys doing great. Cory was pumped after the run and that was fun to see! Shoutout to him for always matching!
Barrel Racing
Ivy Saebens and JLo had the round win tonight which was very exciting for Rachel and they ran a time of 13.43 seconds which ties Emily Miller-Beisel’s run from last night for the fastest time of the night!
Horses were starting to get a bit hot in the alley and that included JLo, Nellie Miller’s Sister, and Valor (Dona Kay Rule). It was crazy to see all of that and we concur with Jeff Medders when he said, “That would be scary.”
Hailey Kinsel’s Sister ran a 13.55 second run for 2nd place then it was Shelly Morgan, Emily Beisel, Jordon Briggs and Lisa Lockhart. When you are looking at the average breakdown for barrel racing, Jordon Briggs with an 82.61 is sitting first and Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi right behind her with an 83.13. Hailey Kinsel is 4 seconds behind Brittany because she knocked that barrel in the second round. Emily is 0.2 behind Hailey, Stevi Hillman at 0.06 behind Emily. If Jordon and Brittany can stay clean that would be great, but they have to get some of the day money. The projected* after Round 6 world standings has Hailey Kinsel $35K over Jordon Briggs.
Bull Riding
Shane Proctor had to start the night off by getting on his Round 5 re-ride bull. Lsat night, while in the chute on his second re-ride bull the bull was not behaving so it resulted in an injury flare up but he had accepted that re-ride prior to getting hurt which allowed for a medical exemption and allowed for a postponement. Round 5 had to be completed in the bull riding tonight before we could start Round 6. Unfortunately, injuries are getting the best of him at this point and he came down without a qualified time for both bull rides.
There were eight qualified bull rides which was on point with Donny Gay’s prediction of nine. Clayton Sellers got a qualified bull ride, however, it wasn’t anything more than a confidence booster point wise. Mr. Consistent, Parker Breding took, Zombie Time of Birch Rodeo for 81.5 points and a check.
Sage Kimzey had a rough start and came out of the bucking chute flat and funky, which was reflected in their score of 83.5 points. For 12 year old bull Rewind’s retirement trip, Josh Frost rode him to 4th place. Ruger Piva and Happy Days had a rematch of a ride that could have won Ruger the 2020 RNCFR championship danced it out for a third place at 87 points. Space Unicorn and Ky Hamilton placed second with an 89.5 point ride. Tonight’s bull riding winner was rookie of the year Creek Young who also won round 3. It was a picture perfect ride for tonight! Creek came in sitting 4th in the world and is starting to make some noise with Round 3 and Round 6 monies won.
The question was could Parker Breding make a world title run after sitting first in the projected* average race for the NFR? Beaudraux Campbell is sitting projected* second in the average race and third is Sage Kimzey with Josh Frost at fourth.
Prior to the buck offs and injuries, Shane Proctor was sitting second in the average. However, was that too far of a distance for him to go? Not really sure with the lead Sage had coming in to the NFR.
When you add in the projected* average the projected* world has Sage Kimzey in first place with $366K+ and he has sat in first place after every single round. The second place right now is Parker Breding with $278K so we are going to need almost $90K to make up the difference and I don’t think he can do it on his own. He is going to need help from the fates, the other competitors and Sage to make that happen. Ground money might need to come into effect as well.