World champions come to Star Center
Rookie Rogers, Lordsburg’s Washburn set to compete tonight
RIO RANCHO — Four-time world champion bull rider Tuff Hedeman brings five other world champions and 18-year-old rookie sensation Wyatt Rogers to the “Rodeo Construction Bucking On The Rio Grande” Championship Bull Riding event tonight at the Santa Ana Star Center.
Only 17 points separate No. 1 Aaron Pass and the No. 2-ranked Rogers in the CBR world standings. Rogers, of Rose, Okla., won his first event as a professional cowboy in his first CBR event in October. That event netted the high school senior over $43,000.
Pass, from Kaufman, Texas, is a veteran with career earnings of over a quarter of a million dollars. He put together two 90-point-plus rides last weekend in Hobbs to take the lead over Rogers.
Joining Hedeman on the dirt will be a total of 24 cowboys from nine states, including reigning CBR and PRCA world champion Sage Steele Kimzey, 2012 PRCA champion Cody Teel and former world champs Josh Barentine and Cole Echols.
“It is a great opportunity for the fans to get a glimpse of this rare talent,” said Hedeman, the producer of the event.
Other veterans on the day sheet competing for a bump in the rankings include NFR qualifier and last week’s CBR Hobbs event champion, Brennon Eldred of Sulphur, Okla., and South Dakota’s bull riding brothers, Ardie and Corey Maier.
Meanwhile, 1996 world champion rider and Lordsburg native Owen Washburn is sending three bucking bulls to compete in the “CBR Million Dollar Bull Team Challenge,” a competition held simultaneously to the rider action.
“Hoping to have a little luck in front of a home-state crowd,” said Washburn.
“Bucking on the Rio Grande” is the sixth stop on a tour that culminates with the world finals at the Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming in July.
The CBR’s tournament style of competition starts with 24 riders. The top 12 advance to a semif inal round and tougher bulls. The lion’s share of $30,000 in prize money will be paid in the shoot-out round that features the best four riders of the night. Riders challenge as many as three bulls in one performance.