The RodeoHouston Wild Card Rounds are unlike any other in the PRCA. You are competing most often against some of the best athletes in the World in your discipline, and you have one shot to be the best out of six to keep your chances of winning RodeoHouston alive.

Yes, you also get $3,000. But the real prize looms at the very end: $65,000 to the winner of the Shootout. With that comes a leg up in the World Title race and greatly increased odds to make the National Finals.

It cannot be overstated how important Houston is, and in the Wild Card, you need your very best stuff to win the round and advance.

In the First Wild Card, 2022 PRCA Bareback Riding World Champion Jess Pope notched his fourth round win of the season to secure his spot in RodeoHouston’s Championship Round for the second straight year. Pope covered Cervi Championship Rodeo’s Make Your Move for 88 points.

It took only 85 on Friday night in Wild Card 2, and it was Jayco Roper getting it done on Pete Carr’s Dusty Roads.

Chance Howard advanced to his first-ever RodeoHouston Championship Round, winning by a full second in the First Wild Card on Thursday. He was 4.2, beating out fellow 2025 NFR qualifiers Ty Erickson, Dakota Eldridge, and Stetson Jorgensen. Chase Crane wrote a similar story in Wild Card 2, turning in a 4.3 to beat a Top 4 that included Tyler Waguespack, Cash Robb, and Scott Guenthner. Only Crane and Waguespack were clean, however.

Coy Rahlmann and partner Logan Medlin were 4.3 to advance into Houston’s Short Round. They narrowly beat out Aaron Tsinigine/Jeremy Buhler, who finished with a 4.4. It will be Rahlmann’s second straight RodeoHouston Championship Round, and they will have an opportunity for a statement win in their first year as partners.

In the Second Wild Card, Kavis Drake/Denim Ross were 4.5 to win by a whopping 14.4 seconds. The only other qualified time Friday was Marcus Theriot/Chase Graves’ 18.9.

In saddle bronc riding, World No. 1 Rusty Wright continued his terrific season by making his first career RodeoHouston Championship Round. He made the highest-marked ride of the rodeo, 89.5 on Calgary Stampede’s Freedom Express. Wright recently became the first Pro Rodeo athlete to cross $100,000 in season earnings in 2026 and is showing no signs of slowing down.

It was nearly a Wright brother sweep in the Wild Card as Kade Bruno and Ryder Wright tied on Night 2 with 86 points apiece, but Bruno got the nod via a tiebreaker.

Four-time World Champion Tuf Cooper picked up his second round win of the event with his 8.1-second Wild Card 1 victory. Cooper has placed in the Top 5 in each round in Houston after having just one such Go-Round finish coming in.

In the Second Wild Card, Ty Harris battled through injury to make a 7.7-second run, one-tenth off the fastest time of the rodeo, to return to the RodeoHouston Championship Round. He won the event in 2024.

Loralee Ward beat out Makenzie Mayes by just .01 seconds in Wild Card 1; Ward was 14.73 to Mayes’ 14.74. In Wild Card 2, Katie Jo Halbert won by just .02 seconds over Keyla Costa, 14.46 to 14.48.

It took an 88-point ride each night to move a cowboy on in the bull riding. Clayton Sellars did so first on Cervi Championship Rodeo’s Centerfold, and Stetson Wright took center stage the next night on Pete Carr’s Pretty Boy. There was only one 88-point ride in the 17 performances prior to the Wild Card.

Haiden Thompson was 2.4 to win and beat out her competition by over half a second in Wild Card 1, and Jackie Crawford’s 3.1 was the next closest. In the Second Wild Card, reigning World Champion Taylor Munsell won with a 2.8.