Rodeo stars will be on display in Ellensburg
September 3, 2009 by YH-R Sports
YAKIMA, Wash. — Pretty much anybody worth seeing in the PRCA ranks — certainly anybody in the running for a world championship as 2009’s regular rodeo season enters its climactic final month — will be at this weekend’s Ellensburg Rodeo.
The top 39 steer wrestlers in the world standings are entered, as are the top 36 saddle bronc riders, the top 36 tie-down ropers, 25 of the top-ranked bareback riders, 37 of the 40 winningest team roping duos, 25 of the top 29 bull riders and 10 of the top 12 barrel racers.
The Ellensburg Rodeo gets under way with the timed-event slack rounds at noon Friday and that evening’s 6:45 p.m. opening rodeo performance, followed by 12:45 p.m. matinee performances Saturday and Sunday and capped by Monday’s 11:45 a.m. finals.
There are all sorts of intriguing storylines.
Locally, the team-roping brother duo of header Riley Minor and heeler Brady Minor are on pace for the second consecutive National Finals Rodeo berth (and Brady’s third overall). The two young brothers — Brady’s 24 and Riley’s only 21 — have nearly surpassed $500,000 in combined career earnings already, with this big-paying weekend and the NFR still to come.
Culver, Ore.’s Bobby Mote is going after his third world bareback riding title, but he comes into Ellensburg a distant second to first-time NFR qualifier Clint Cannon of Texas, who has already broken Mote’s 2007 event record for regular-season earnings. Team roper Chad Masters of Clarksville, Tenn., is also coming on in the heels of a record-setting season, having surpassed the event mark set by his buddy, Speed Williams.
Montana saddle bronc rider Jesse Kruse leads his event by more than $35,000 a year after missing out on the NFR because of his own clerical error — he neglected to notify the PRCA of a handful of rodeos in which he had entered but never competed, so he was over the circuit’s maximum rodeo count by the time he had made nearly $30,000 in a late-season rodeo that would have moved him well into the top 10.
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you need to read the article in the local paper, last week from bremerton wash., the tapsun …. the article was very well writen.. it was about Clint Cannon and it classified him as a modern day gladiator. it was probably one of the best rodeo sports articles ever writen, i will bet you it will inspire you if you read it. hope you get a chance to watch Clint ride, we believe he is probably the greatest bareback rider in history! it is realy action packed , everytime he rides and you will feel the energy if you watch him. thankyou for the rodeo articles, rodeo fans everywhere depend on writers like you, so thank you again from Texas, we love our rodeos in Texas.