There were four rodeos over the last week that paid over $500,000 and on the backs of Salinas, the NFR Open, and the Calgary Stampede, the ProRodeo season somehow continues to only get better.

There was an astounding amount of 90-point rides in Cheyenne, multiple athletes racking up over $30,000, and history made on several fronts.

That’s not to mention battles at the Top of the World Standings and an improbable NFR run…

Saddle bronc rider Brody Wells won over $37,000 for winning Salt Lake City and more. The aforementioned Gold Medal, which he got for a 91.5-point ride on Pete Carr’s Larry Culpepper, paid him $18,000. He also made two straight 90-point rides to win his Quarterfinal and Semifinal in Cheyenne while taking second in Ogden. Wells started the week at No. 11 in the World Standings and will likely jump to No. 7 or 8.

Bradlee Miller extended his lead in the PRCA Bareback Riding World Standings with a Gold Medal of his own. Miller took back the top spot a few weeks ago for his victory in Calgary and has not slowed down since. Six days after Calgary, he finished third at the NFR Open after winning two rounds. This past weekend, he rode Hooey Rocks for 90 to earn an $18,000 payday in the Short Round in Salt Lake City. Miller has been 86 or better on 11 of his last 14 rides.

World Champion tie-down roper Shad Mayfield continue his rapid World Standings climb, going from No. 33 to No. 23. What seemed like a stretch goal to make the National Finals in just 3.5 months of rodeo is starting to look more and more like a reality. After winning Salinas and finishing second in the NFR over the Weekend of July 19, Mayfield impressed across multiple rodeos once again. He was 6.7 to win Round 2 in Spanish Fork and took second in the Average in both Deadwood and Oregon’s Chief Joseph Days. In total, he has made $49,000 since July 16.

Sons of World Champions Nicky Northcott and Tyler Tryan got the biggest win of their careers in Cheyenne. They are just 19 and 20-years-old respectively and perhaps they were destined to be superstars with their family pedigree, but boy has it happened fast. After a 7.6-second run in the Short Go yesterday, they bested Kaleb Driggers/Junior Noguiera in a tiebreaker and etched their names into rodeo history. Northcott is No. 6 in the World and Tryan is No. 7, and the NFR is starting to look more and more like the next big box these two check off of the list.

Ryder Wright topped Sage Newman and Brody Cress in one of the best bronc riding rounds you will see this season. Butch Knowles has been announcing the NFR for over 30 years, and said he’d never seen a round of rodeo like the saddle bronc riding Short Round in Cheyenne. Wright, Newman, and Cress, all of whom have been the last five NFRs, were 92 points. On money won, the title went to Wright, who banked $14,633 for rides of 89.5 and 90 to go along with his 92. He was also 88.5 in Spanish Fork and 89.5 for second in Salt Lake City over the weekend.

Tie-down roper Joel Harris had the best week of his career, winning more than $37,000. In doing so, Harris moved up to No. 3 in the World. He won the Average in Spanish Fork, which paid him a total of $13,363 and then he took second in Salt Lake City, making runs of 7.4, 7.5, and 7.4 along the way. That paid him $17,642, with the final payout of the week coming from a sixth place finish in Ogden.

Breakaway roper Cheyanne McCartney has now won Calgary and Cheyenne in the same season. It only took two years of breakaway being offered in Calgary for someone to accomplish that special feat, and McCartney was an incredibly worthy roper to do so. After winning her Semifinal in Cheyenne, she delivered with a walk-off win and a time of 4.3 seconds, the fastest run of the rodeo to boot.

90-point rides defined Cheyenne Frontier Days with a total of 32 across the three roughstock events. That included 11 on Championship Sunday alone, bringing the total to 32 for the week, likely the most 90-point rides ever recorded at a rodeo outside the NFR. Bareback riding accounted for 12, saddle bronc riding had 13, and bull riding added seven. For comparison, Calgary produced 13 combined 90-point rides this year, Reno had three, and Greeley had one.

No. 2 team roping pair Kaleb Driggers/Junior Nogueira finish second in Cheyenne as part of $22,000 weekend. As mentioned above, they just barely came up short in Cheyenne, but pair that with third in Round 1 in both Ogden and Spanish Fork and second in Round 2 in Deadwood, and all is well.

Bareback rider Cooper Cooke had another big weekend to quietly creep to No. 3 in the World. The two-time NFR qualifier won $13,000 at the NFR Open on July 18 and then made $19,889 last weekend for winning Ogden and taking second in Deadwood. An interesting plan to not go to Cheyenne paid off.

No. 2 bull rider Tristen Hutchings closing in on top spot once again after a victory in Salt Lake City. It looked like Noah Lee might start to run away with this race after a win in Calgary, but Hutchings punched right back by gritting out a Gold Medal victory as the lone bull rider to make the whistle in the Finals in SLC. He made over $20,000 and will have reduced Lee’s lead to only a few thousand. Hutchings was also 92 in the Cheyenne Extreme Bulls last week.

Jayco Roper won Cheyenne with a career high 93 points in the bareback riding. We should’ve known it was going to be an edge-of-your-seat Championship Round based on the way it started. There were rides of 91.5 and 90 points already on the board before Roper delivered his 93. He then had to watch as Trevor McAllister nearly matched him with 91.5 points of his own. Roper started the week No. 19 and has now put himself in the heart of the bubble race with about two months left to go in the regular season.

Steer wrestling permitholder Cole Pugh announced himself in the ProRodeo world in Cheyenne. The 2023 Junior World Champion got faster on each run, turning in a 5.9, 5.5, and 5.3, the latter stunned Tristan Martin’s 5.4 in the Finals and lead to a whooping celebration. Pugh won every round he bulldogged in and made up a third of the runs in the 5s on his own.