LAS VEGAS – Steven Peebles nearly died just five months ago. Tonight, he left the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER with a haul that he only could’ve imagined in his wildest dreams.
The 26-year-old from Redmond, Ore., captured the bareback riding world title, the WNFR average championship and the RAM Top Gun award.
Peebles rode for 83.5 points on Pete Carr’s Classic Pro Rodeo’s Good Time Charlie to split the Round-10 win and move ahead of four-time World Champion Kaycee Feild by $10,523 after Feild failed to earn a check aboard Frontier Rodeo’s Times Up.
Month: December 2015
LAS VEGAS – Bull rider Sage Kimzey earned his second straight gold buckle tonight, making him the first man in the event’s history to win the world title in his first two years as a PRCA card holder.
Kimzey’s 84-point ride on Smith, Harper and Morgan’s Maverick was good for second place in Round 9 of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER.
With the $20,731 he earned tonight, Kimzey can finish with no less than a total of $304,755, while Cody Teel – the only man close enough to overtake him entering the night – can finish with no more than $300,749, even if he wins Round 10 and the average crown.
LAS VEGAS – Trevor Brazile just keeps outdoing himself at the 2015 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER.
Brazile earned his 23rd gold buckle in Round 6 two nights ago when he clinched the world all-around title by winning the tie-down roping title with a 6.6-second run.
Tonight, he one-upped himself with a 6.5 to tie the arena record and nearly take the lead in the tie-down roping world standings. He trails brother-in-law Tuf Cooper by just $537, and trails only Caleb Smidt in the WNFR average race.
Photo by Tom Donoghue
LAS VEGAS – Rusty Wright has watched his father and uncles take victory laps many times over the years in Las Vegas, and now he’s experiencing his own.
The 20-year-old saddle bronc rider won Round 7 of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER with an 83-point trip on Frontier Rodeo’s Tip Off. It was his second win in four nights, as he also was tops in Round 4.
Photo by Tom Donoghue
LAS VEGAS – Trevor Brazile won his 23rd world championship tonight, and he did it in style.
The Decatur, Texas, cowboy clinched the 13th gold all-around buckle of his career when he won the tie-down roping in Round 6 with a 6.6-second run at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER.
The lightning bolt of a run broke the previous Round 6 record of 6.9 seconds, and was just one-tenth of a second off the arena record time of 6.5 seconds set by Cody Ohl in 2003.
LAS VEGAS – Team ropers Derrick Begay and Clay O’Brien Cooper are officially on fire, and on top of the world. Standings, that is.
The duo won their third round in five tries when they split the Round 5 win with Coleman Proctor and Jake Long with a 4.0-second run.
Both Begay and Cooper have earned a total of $75,942 in five nights, and tonight they took the world standings lead from two-time defending world champs Clay Tryan and Jade Corkill. It’s the first time a team other than Tryan and Corkill have led the world standings since February.
Photo by Tom Donoghue
LAS VEGAS – Kaycee Feild had watched Steven Peebles close in on his lead in the world bareback riding standings the last two nights, and when Peebles put up another big ride tonight, Feild responded.
During Round 4 of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER Peebles posted an 84-point ride on Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Scarlet Belle on the second-to-last ride of the night, taking the go-round lead. Feild was the last rider out, and had to come up with a solid score – he did, also posting an 84 on J Bar J’s Pass the Hat.
Photo by Tom Donoghue
LAS VEGAS – Aaron Tsinigine and Ryan Motes didn’t get to rope together in Las Vegas last year. Now, they’re making up for lost time in a big way.
The pair won their second round in three nights during Round 3 action at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER with a 4.0-second time.
In 2014, Tsinigine and Motes didn’t start roping together until the spring, and as a result, Tsinigine roped with seven-time World Champion Team Roper and ProRodeo Hall of Famer Clay O’Brien Cooper at the WNFR.
LAS VEGAS – At this point, Steven Peebles can almost be penciled in to win the second round at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER.
The Redmond, Ore., bareback rider is making his seventh appearance in Las Vegas, and tonight was his third-straight victory lap in Round 2 after he rode for 84.5 points on Growney Brothers Rodeo’s Beaver Fever.
Photo by Tom Donoghue
LAS VEGAS – The 2015 edition of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER got off to a historical start.
Trevor Brazile, the 22-time world champion, won the tie-down roping with a 6.8-second run – the fastest Round 1 time in WNFR history.
“That’s sweet, I had no idea,” Brazile said of setting the record.