Gorst makes dash for Rangeland Derby cash
Calgary Logan Gorst grabbed the No. 1 barrel.
And then he came away as the No. 1 chuckwagon man Sunday night in the 2019 GMC Rangeland Derby.
Gorst (Century Downs Racetrack and Casino) won the $100,000 dash for cash in a time of 1:10.87, defeating a two-time Calgary Stampede champion along the way.
Hot on Gorst’s heels for the runner-up spot was Todd Baptiste (Maneo with Groundswell), in 1:11.30.
Luke Tournier (Mobsquad), a longtime veteran of the GMC Rangeland Derby who has won the dash for cash twice, ran third, while Vern Nolin (Dentons Canada LLP) — in his third final-four along with Gorst — piloted the final rig across the line before a raucous crowd at the Stampede Grandstand.
Coming out of the infield, Tournier had the lead on his sonin-law, Gorst.
But Gorst quickly made up ground before the second turn and turned on the horsepower to ride to his first ever Stampede victory.
“This is awesome,” the 37-yearold reinsman from Meadow Lake, Sask., told Postmedia a day earlier. “I absolutely love it. I love working with the horses. I’ve got a great family life. I’ve got my dad (Gary Gorst) there, I’ve got my fatherin-law there, I’ve got my brother (Dustin Gorst) there, so it’s great. My kids absolutely love it. I don’t mind work, but doing this, there’s nothing better.”
Especially when you can beat your father-in-law along the way.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Tournier told Postmedia a day earlier. “We strategize together, ask each other for opinions on how to drive a barrel or what horse a guy should use or which horse is running fast, because you’re always analyzing everything and sometimes it’s good to get a second opinion, so we bounce stuff off each other.”
For his efforts, Tournier takes home $15,000 for third in the dash for cash.
It was Baptiste’s first run in the final, and his second-place finish gets him $25,000.
Nolin, who pockets $10,000, has finished fourth in all three of his final-four appearances.
AROUND THE BARRELS
Veteran driver Ray Mitsuing wrapped up his 36-year chuckwagons career in style Sunday night by winning his heat. The 65-yearold former chief of Loon Lake First Nation in northwestern Saskatchewan had the fastest running time 1:11.37 in Heat 6. Unfortunately, outrider penalties tagged three seconds onto his Border Tribal Council team’s trip, and Mitsuing finished with a 1:14.37 time ...
Evan Salmond and Excel Projects took a no-time in Sunday’s eighth heat because at least one horse fell to the track after going around the third turn on the northeast end of the Stampede Park track. Several people tended to the scene, with at least two trailers brought in by farm tractors to help with the situation.