BY BRETT NIERENGARTEN @PRORODEOBRETT
The World Standings, frankly, look a lot different than they did a week ago.
There’s a new No. 1 in the bareback riding and the saddle bronc riding now has seven cowboys who made the 2023 NFR within $41,000 of the top spot.
On the timed event end of the arena, Leslie Smalygo has reclaimed her top spot in barrel racing just a week after losing it, and Shad Mayfield is no longer a sure bet to be the No. 1 tie-down roper entering Las Vegas.
Not to mention, Dalton Massey is on a regular season record pace again in the bulldogging and Kaleb Driggers/Junior Noguiera are charging toward a third PRCA Team Roping World Title in the last four years.
Obviously, Calgary had a lot to do with the new story being written in the World Standings. As did the NFR Open. And although the standings have stabilized a bit, and should for the rest of the season, the Daddy of ‘em All could change that in a blink beginning this Friday.
- Saddle bronc rider Kade Bruno made back-to-back 92-point rides on Championship Sunday to outduel Zeke Thurston in Calgary. For about 15 minutes, it looked like Thurston had won his fourth Stampede title, but after some clarification, it was determined that the title did in fact belong to Bruno, who was making his debut in Calgary in 2024. After both cowboys rode for 92 points in the Four-Man Shootout, Bruno prevailed in the ride-off with a 92-point ride although it was initially recorded as a 90. With the win, Bruno moved from No. 7 to No. 2 in the World after winning about $40,000 toward the World Standings in Calgary. Thurston didn’t go empty handed as he hopped from No. 8 to No. 4 in the World.
- Kaleb Driggers/Junior Noguiera have won about $60,000 in July already. The pair have rocketed up the World Standings since July, with Driggers going from No. 9 to No. 1 and Nogueira going from No. 12 to No. 2. They most recently added to it by winning the NFR Open and collecting $16,000. The pair also won at least $4,000 at three different Cowboy Christmas rodeos, including more than $10,000 in St. Paul. They are averaging faster than 6.3 seconds per run for the third straight season and are the only pair to average faster than that each of the last two seasons.
- Leslie Smalygo quickly reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the WPRA World Standings after losing it for just one week. Emily Beisel’s time at No. 1 was short-lived as Smalygo got it back and put some distance between herself and the rest of the field with a 16.94-second run to win Calgary. That means Smalygo has won the two highest paying rodeos of the year as she also won Houston in March.
- Tie-down roper Ty Harris has cut Shad Mayfield’s lead from $62,000 to $13,000 in two weeks. For most of the year, it looked like a foregone conclusion that Shad Mayfield would enter the NFR No. 1 and possibly break the PRCA regular season earnings. Harris won four Cowboy Christmas rodeos in addition to second place finishes at the Greeley Stampede (Colorado) and St. Paul Rodeo (Oregon), which both paid about $8,000. Harris made about $50,000 overall during Cowboy Christmas to break his own record of $40,000 from a season ago. Harris is now at $156,243 for the season.
- Bareback rider Keenan Hayes won his second straight NFR Open. After grabbing the third and final spot in Pool C, Hayes made sure the rodeo that propelled him to No. 1 in the World a year ago didn’t forget about him. He was 89 points in the Finals to bring his earnings to $16,000 for the event and he needed every dollar to keep pace in a close bareback riding race.
- Four bareback riders are within $10,000 of No. 1 in the World. Up until this point in the summer, it had been Leighton Berry and Keenan Hayes going back and forth for the top spot. But over the weekend, Rocker Steiner’s 90.5-point ride for second in Calgary powered him to No. 1 at $132,237, Hayes is second at $127,568, Berry is third with $124,765, and RC Landingham, the Calgary Stampede Champion, is fourth with $122,655.
- Saddle bronc rider Zac Dallas is up to No. 10 in the World after winning three rodeos over the weekend. The headline rodeos were Calgary and the NFR Open, Dallas went to neither, but still had a string of solid paydays. He won two Playoff Rodeos, Sheridan Wyo Rodeo and the Silver State Stampede as well as the Elgin Stampede (Oregon). All of those rodeos paid between $4,600 and $6,400. Dallas was No. 17 at the beginning of July.
- Tie-down roper Haven Meged made runs of 6.9 and 6.7 seconds to win first Calgary Stampede. Meged entered Calgary with no times faster than 7 seconds on the season then proceeded to turn in his two fastest runs of the year on Championship Sunday. The 6.7 in the Finals tied for the second-fastest of the rodeo and helped him go from No. 7 to No. 3 in the World Standings. Meged has more than doubled his season earnings in the last two weeks alone is now within $50,000 of Shad Mayfield.
- Bareback rider RC Landingham has ridden C5 Rodeo’s Virgil for 92 points or more twice this year. Landingham said afterward he waited 15 years to draw him and wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to pick him first overall for the Short Round in Calgary. The first time he rode Virgil this year, which was also the first time in his career, was a 92-pointer to win the Red Bluff Round-Up (California) in April.
- Five saddle bronc riders have now cleared $125,000, and all five of them made the NFR. Damian Brennan still leads, but after the dramatic ride-off in Calgary, Bruno (No. 2) and Thurston (No. 4) have joined the Top 5 along with Lefty Holman and Sage Newman, who had previously held down No. 1 and No. 2 all summer.
