Generally every roping story line starts out with the same theme "bigger and better." But bigger and better is a little redundant for the World Series of Team Roping. Last year during its inaugural Finale Event the WS payoff surpassed every single roping in the United States except the Reno Invitational. Continuing to rise, the two "Big " ropings, the #11 Finale and the #10 Finale, rose from $570,000 and $590,000 to $650,000 each, with its national ranking splitting 2nd and 3rd behind Reno. The #14 Pro-Am Finale was added this year and was limited to 170 teams for a $406,000 payoff; achieving 10th in the national purse rankings without even trying.
When all was said and done the "Finale II" paid out $1,830,000 up from $1.1 million last year and gave out another $70,000 in prizes. The South Point Hotel and Casino responded by moving the event in 2008 from the first weekend of the NFR to the prime time second weekend. The contract has been extended for three more years, and the South Point Equestrian center has promised to build a new larger parking lot for horse trailers.
With the Las Vegas NFR week filled with cowboy activities, the WSTR invited many spectators and enthusiasts to the beautiful South Point Equestrian Event Center to see what the excitement was all about. Spectators and ropers alike were buzzing about the introduction of the new Priefert No-Barrier system. In addition, it was evident everywhere you looked, the World Series folks stepped up the production from last year to put on the "Big Show." Before the short rounds on Saturday and Sunday, beautiful two horse Bloomer slant trailers were drawn from a pot of ropers and spectators. Steve Taylor of Midland, Texas won the 1st trailer and Walt Vermendal of Cave Creek, Arizona, won the 2nd trailer.
It's clear WSTR continues to climb the ladder with promises of much, much more in the Las Vegas tradition to come.
The Double J Saddlery Welcome Roping
The Welcome Roping kicked of the festivities with a fun little roping ($125,800) to welcome ropers to Vegas and sort cattle. Teams rope in three head elimination rotations with 10% moving on to a four steer average rope off. Talk about easy, two of the ten checks were paid on three head. Times only seemed to matter in the distribution of checks. It was a great start for the weekend with 110 individuals winning checks.
Marvin Maestas of Los Alamos, NM and Shane Sena, Sapello, NM roped four steers in 40. Marvin is a Safety Specialist with Los Alamos National Labs, and Shane is a Systems Technician with NM Highlands University. The two split $21,000 this year to start a great weekend.
Cactus Ropes #14 Pro-Am Finale
This was the first year for the Pro-Am Roping and no doubt would have filled to capacity, however WSTR was closely monitoring stall reservations and cut off entries for this division when the stall barn was filled. Future Hall of Fame jockey, G.R. Carter and high school roper Cody Doescher, both of Oklahoma City, put three seconds between themselves and the rest of the field to hold the high call position and win $80,000 with a 32.76 on four steers. Surprisingly, very few of the teams in this division seemed to be playing the average game. Many of these talented rodeo hands were throwing the bomb and taking quick corner shots, which equated to a soft Pro-Am with the last position in the average being 40.88 (unheard of in #14 ropings around the country).
In his follow-up interview G.R. Carter was singing the praises of the Priefert No-barrier set up. "I have always been an aggressive header and the barrier has been a nightmare for me. I got to rope on this system last summer in Ruidoso and I couldn't wait to get here and get behind it. It allows me to just focus on roping"! Carter achieved another goal earlier this year when he filled his PRCA permit his first time out in the steer tripping at Guymon, OK. Carter said, "Now I have one of the prettiest buckles around, so my new goal for 2008 is to be a forty year old PRCA Steer Tripping Rookie of the Year".
Seventeen-year-old Cody Doescher just continues to add wins to his resume. Last year he won the National Junior Team Roping Championship, and became the first heeler to win the World Series #14. Cody said, "we practiced our four World Series runs at home all week last week and every single time we won the roping. G.R. thought I was just kidding." After that comment, Carter added, "I took him over to see his first NFR and he told me he would be down in that arena in a few years, and I really don't doubt it for a second"!
Only two teams that missed in the short round were fast enough to claim three head consolation checks. The biggest move in the short round was Moe Bracken and Craig Branham who moved from 26th to 9th on a 7 second run. The biggest moves for big checks were Steve Dismuke and Shawn Harrelson moving from 10th to 3rd, and Kelly Cheatham and Chance Kelton moving from 18th to 8th.
Priefert #11 Finale
On face value you would think that the $150,000 win was a predictable outcome, since Jared Udy, Newton, Utah and Bill Stewart, Woodruff, Utah, had the fastest time in the first round and short round.
But to be honest Greg Miller and Bret Layne, Modesto, CA had roped three 9's in a row, they were high call; this was their roping to win or lose, and obviously they didn't make it. But don't single out Miller and Layne, this roping absolutely fell to pieces. How bad was it? Fifty-six teams made the short round. Jacobs and Greenough roping in the 44th call back moved all the way to 19th, a move of 25 positions. Brown/Waggoner moved from 41st to 19th, Wilson/Neutzling from 35th to 17th, and Ewing/Ewing from 28th to 11th.
But back to the real story of Udy and Stuart. Here are two modest ranchers from Utah, by their own admission just strong family guys, that stay on the ranch and rope as their recreation. Jared who also ranches in Idaho, won a trailer at the Northwest Regionals back in the 90's but doesn't consider himself among the usual winners. Fall is a busy time for Jared and his wife Emily, ranching and raising a daughter 14, and boys 9 and 7. The boys have a drawer full of roping dummy buckles and his family enjoys and really supports his roping habit. Jared was quick to think of his family of supporters who were taking care of his chores while he was gone. But he pointed out that his in-laws all thought he was crazy for roping during this time of year. Before the roping he harrowed the snow into the sand and practiced in 20-degree weather.
Jared said he was thankful for the Welcome Roping, "My young horse was really acting up and not caring for Vegas much, so I switched to my old horse before the Finale and it worked out well. The whole Las Vegas experience was really an eye opener. And that barrier was neat, it really let a lot older gentlemen get competitive in the middle of the arena. I am certainly glad we got to come."
On the subject of winning, Bill Stuart lets out a big belly laugh, suggesting that this hasn't been one of his best years. Bill said, "I have been a little cold lately and was worried about wasting Jared's money. Before we left my brother turned me six head and I only caught one. Then I missed the first steer in the Welcome Roping, I was starting to get that bad feeling. It didn't take long to go from maybe a bad roping year to one of my very best ever." In talking to Bill he is extremely proud of his family. He and his wife Cindy have four kids, a daughter and three boys, who all "kinda" rope. Bill said, "That night I put my new buckle by the bed so that when I woke up I wouldn't think I was dreaming. Sure enough I woke up three or four times. My wife assured me that I wasn't dreaming." He also said, " I have a friend named Reed and before I left, I offered to let him have half my winnings if he would pay my fees, he called yesterday and said he thought the check must have got tied up in the mail and should be arriving any day."
The Bloomer Trailers #10 Finale
The #10 World Series was not quite as soft at the #11 Finale, but extremely close. Three of the top five teams missed which let Max Vincent and Phil Jennings from Oklahoma move from 10th call back to 2nd in the roping on a 9.68 second run. The difference in moving up eight spots was $12,500 to $75,000. Billy and Bear Pipes were sitting in the catbird seat roping their first two in 9's, a third in 10, and a short round of 11.08 to win it all by a full three seconds over second place. From second down the times ran from 43 to 57, with the two final checks being paid on two legs.
This roping really epitomizes that saying that "you're not out until your out." Forty two teams came to the short round and with that said 40th call David Moore and Joe Yonan moved to 19th in the average with a simple little 11.75 run. But the biggest move of this roping went to the Canadian team of Wayne Blatz and Monty Gertner moving all the way from 30th to 10th in the average.
As one of the four owners of Bloomer Trailers Billy Pipes said he really didn't even think about the fact that Bloomer was the roping sponsor until someone mentioned it. Billy's primary business is a paving and grading company in Las Vegas. Billy said, "It is just so neat the support that I am getting from people I saw here. The first two that came up and congratulated me were Bob Feist and Rich Skelton". He said, "Even more special was that I won this with my son. I won a Shoot-Out in Oklahoma three years ago with my son Buck, so winning this with Bear was icing on the cake. I came here last year and roped badly but still told everyone it was the best roping I had ever been to. If I felt that way last year, you can imagine how I feel now."
We asked him about his big grey horse, Roanie. Billy responded that every horse has a story and certainly Roanie has his, "He is the best horse I have ever owned, but as a colt I tried to sell him for $250 dollars, even tried to trade him to my horseshoer for shoeing and he wouldn't agree. A funny story, I loaned him to Shelly Granzine at the Reno Invitational and she won second with Manuel Gonzales. They voted him head horse of the roping then discovered he was a crop-out paint and took back the AQHA award."
It has been quite a year for Donnie Pipes (aka Bear) from Temple, TX, Marketing Manager of Duster Trailer Conversions. On September 22nd he took the big plunge and married sweet Kami. If any of you can remember how nervous you were on your wedding day, then you can understand his next statement. Donnie said, " I pulled my hat down and was really focused. After being so nervous during the wedding in September, the short round really didn't seem that stressful." We asked him about the name, and he said in rodeo and roping circles he is known as Bear, but professionally it takes too much time to explain. We noticed the business cards all read "Donnie".
He said, "I've always been a header, so dad and I never roped together much. Dad won a Shoot-Out with Buck a few years ago, so I feel like I'm cutting in on little brothers' action. Buck and I roped together at Sam Houston State, but never made the college finals, so this was a big treat. I just started heeling about a year and a half ago, and anyone that has switched from heading to heeling knows what my last year was like. I recently bought a horse from Johnny Phillips that really fits me and I think it helped. There just aren't that many people that have ever won $75,000 in one team roping, and this buckle is great"!
