DeMoss saves best for last, captures saddle bronc title
Cody DeMoss had just qualified for the $50,000 Shootout at RodeoHouston, but when the NRG Stadium camera found him walking back to the chutes, his mixed emotions were plainly visible.
He was moving on, but he’d knocked younger brother Heith out of contention.
So the veteran saddle bronc rider from Heflin, La., did the only thing he could — come back in the short round and win it all.
Cody DeMoss posted a rodeobest score of 92 points on Wild Cherry in Saturday’s Championship Shootout, making him the first back-to-back saddle bronc champ and a three-time winner overall.
“I knew when I got off (Payback), I probably was going to beat him, and he just built him a new house and he could really use this more than I could,” DeMoss said. “I’ll probably waste it on something.
“I guess I could give it to him … but I don’t know that I’m that good of a brother.”
But he is a good bronc rider. ‘Lined up for a blessing’
The 13-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier from Heflin, La., secured his first RodeoHouston saddle in 2003, the first year the rodeo moved from the Astrodome to NRG, then Reliant Stadium.
Now DeMoss is the first backto-back $50,000 winner.
He left with a check for $56,250 after making $56,438 last year in Houston.
“That just means I’m doing my job, I reckon, and I was lined up for a blessing,” DeMoss said.
Bull rider Parker Breding did his job three times. Well, close enough anyway. The Edgar, Mont., man tied for third in the long round with an 88 on House of Pain, then he tied 2013 Houston champ J.W. Harris with an 88 on Monte Walsh in the Shootout, forcing a tiebreaker.
Neither cowboy made it to 8 seconds in the ride-off.
But Breding ($42,500) lasted a little longer, staying on HTTR for 7.3 seconds to earn the title of Houston champion.
He and Harris split the firstand second-place money.
“I can’t say I’ve ever been paid this much for not staying on 8 seconds, so this is pretty cool,” Breding said.
“This is right at the top of my list of accomplishments.”
That goes for most Houston winners, but especially 2018 tiedown roping champion Tyler Milligan of Pawhuska, Okla.
The reigning rookie of the year won Houston in his first try.
Milligan, riding Big Time, roped his calf in 7.8 seconds in both rounds Saturday, earning him $56,000.
“It’s hard to believe,” Milligan said. A win years in the making
Veteran team ropers Matt Sherwood, 48, and Walt Woodard, 62, could hardly process their good fortune either.
They’ve competed here since the Astrodome days. They finally won Saturday.
The duo tied for first in the long round, then won the Shootout with a rodeo-record 4.0, netting them $112,000.
“Take the age and everything else on that side of it away, this is the greatest rodeo, and to win this big a prize against the best guys in the world, in this big of an arena … is unbelievable,” Sherwood said.
Canadian Clint Laye ($57,250) won the bareback championship with 89 points on Junior Bonner, Timmy Sparing secured the steer wrestling title with a 5.0, and Nellie Williams-Miller ($58,750) emerged as the top barrel racer, circling the barrels in 14.86 seconds on her horse, Sister.
“This is a huge rodeo — and the biggest one I’ve won yet,” Williams-Miller said.