Nashville’s inaugural Music City Rodeo added an extra punch to this part of the rodeo calendar, debuting as a star-studded event that paid nearly $300,000. It joined the likes of Old Fort Days and the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo, both of which paid out more than $150,000.

World No. 1 Wacey Schalla extended his lead on the rest of the bull riders with a win at the Music City Rodeo. After cashing in over $8,700 for his 88-point ride on the final out of the rodeo, Schalla now leads TJ Gray and Stetson Wright by about $38,000 apiece. Schalla has already won $164,378 this season, a total that would have put him No. 9 in last year’s regular season. Since May 16, Schalla has ridden 5-of-7 bulls and won nearly $27,944.

Tuf Cooper won his first rodeo following his father’s death. Tuf undoubtedly made the Super Looper proud by making a 7.2-second run to win the rodeo in his first time competing in close to two months. Tuf said afterward the win was one of the most memorable of his 16+ year career and that his father would have wanted him out there. He bought the horse he won on, Hammer, after being convinced to buy him by Roy.

No. 6 saddle bronc rider Weston Patterson won three rodeos over the weekend. Patterson made far more this past weekend ($7,101) than he did the previous four weeks of May ($4,006). He was 88 on Lil Brother at Arkansas’ Old Fort Days to collect $4,561 of that and also won a pair of Kansas rodeos — the Bennington PRCA Rodeo and the Flint Hills Rodeo.

No. 8 steer wrestler Riley Duvall picked up his fifth win of the season at Old Fort Days. Duvall has entered seven rodeos in May and left with a check at five of them, including the $3,500 he won for winning Round 1 and the Average in Fort Smith. The Okie is looking to make a fifth career NFR and his first since 2021.

Stetson Wright got his second saddle bronc riding win since May 17 at the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo. After returning from his 14-month layoff, Stetson quickly found his groove in the bull riding, but saddle bronc riding has taken a bit longer. He appears to be off and running now, though, after 85 points to win the Sufcomine PRCA Rode on May 17 and 87 to win the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo on June 1. This past weekend, Wright was also 88 at the Fort Herriman PRCA Rodeo and he sits No. 16 in the PRCA World Standings after winning $8,500 over the last two weeks.

Tie-down roper Hayden Ford sweeps Old Fort Days and has nearly doubled his season earnings over the last 10 days. The 22-year-old was 8.7 and 10.1 seconds on his two runs in Arkansas to clean up there. He also won the Colorado Stampede on May 25 and took fifth at the Home of the Navajo PRCA Rodeo for two more paydays north of $1,700. All told, he has taken his earnings from $11,202 to $21,737 since May 23.

Bull Rider Creek Young got a win for the second weekend in a row. After starting the season 0-for-6, the four-time NFR qualifier has ridden three of his last five and all three of them have resulted in wins — 81 at the Will Rogers Stampede for $11,266, 87 at the Old Fort Days for $5,612 and 84 at the Durant Pro Rodeo for $3,961.

There were nine tie-down roping times in the 7s at the Music City Rodeo. The inaugural event in the heart of Nashville saw some elite timed event action. Not only were there nine times of 7.8 or faster, but five of those times came from 2024 NFR qualifiers and another one was courtesy of 10-time qualifier Cory Solomon. Joel Harris was second behind Cooper with a 7.4.

There were also 11 team roping runs of 4.4 or faster. The team roping was just as good as the tie-down roping. Everyone was gunning for the pace 3.9 pace set by Coleman Proctor/Logan Medlin and eventually it was topped by Cody Snow/Hunter Koch, who won the rodeo with a 3.8. Tanner Tomlinson/Travis Graves, Brenten Hall/Kaden Profili, and Nelson Wyatt/Jonathan Torres were all 4 flat as well.