The tie-down roping ProRodeo World Championship race that started with Shad Mayfield posting a staggering lead has turned on its head—with everyone from Ty Harris to Resistol Rookies making their bid for a 2024 NFR berth.

Overview of the Top 15 action

Torrid is the best word to describe Harris’ roping thus far in July and it continued with another big weekend, this one worth $17,249, in the mid-point of the month. Though he didn’t win first anywhere, he picked up big checks both in Salinas at the California Rodeo and the Snake River Stampede in Nampa, Idaho to win the most of anyone on the road this week.

Harris has banked nearly $69,000 since July 1 and is now less than $10,000 behind World leader Shad Mayfield, who had been miles ahead of the field since winning both Fort Worth and San Antonio this winter.

Shuffling elsewhere within the standings, Tuf Cooper won $9,547 at Nampa and Salinas to roll up a spot to seventh, Joel Harris capitalized with a $10,000-plus weekend to move to 10th, and Quade Hiatt roped $9,321 in earnings to jump to 11th.

In the battle to see who is roping at the Thomas & Mack when the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) kicks off in December, the guys already inside the top 15 of the standings—that’s the guys who’ll go to Vegas when the regular season ends September 30—are doing a good job off holding off the challengers from behind with two big exceptions.

Rookies Rockin’ It

There are just two new guys inside the top 15 of the PRCA World standings in the calf roping this week and both rookies.

Portales, New Mexico, roper Bryce Derrer has bounced in and out of the top 15 for most of the spring and summer and has held the lead for the prestigious Rookie of the Year title for a good portion of that time as well. After slipping down the standings a bit, Derrer bounced back during the mid-point of July with a five-figure weekend.

Derrer collected $10,606 for a reserve finish at the California Rodeo to jump to 14th in the World standings.

Unfortunately for him on the rookie side, he is trailing Cole Clemons, who had an even bigger weekend.

Eyes on Cole Clemons

Clemons captured the win at Nampa and picked up some money in California, too, earning a total of $13,089.

“I feel like I’ve known all those guys for awhile and it’s a good bunch,” Clemons noted of the tough rookie class in 2024. “Like Derrer, we’ve been neck and neck the last couple of weeks.”

For Clemons, the Rookie title is a secondary goal to the big one: roping in Las Vegas at the NFR.

“It’s kinda crazy, I have people ask me all the time how the rookie deal is going and I have to say, I really don’t know,” Clemons laughed, “but it’s because my goal and my eyes are set on the Finals and I figure if I get that done, the rookie deal takes care of itself.”

There haven’t been a lot of rookies make the NFR in the tie down roping—just four in the last twenty years, in fact. All went on to win world titles, Tuf Coper (2008), Caleb Smidt (2013), Haven Meged (2019) and most recently, Riley Webb (2022).

Webb is paying it forward; he helped Dylan Hancock a year ago as he took the title and both are in Clemons’ hauling group.

“I’m traveling with Riley and Dylan and I couldn’t get it done without them,” Clemons said. “It’s pretty incredible having your two best friends in the truck with you.”

For the last week, it’s been a little more in truck AND in the plane.

“We were in Cheyenne Monday, then Nampa Tuesday, Salt Lake Wednesday and Thursday, Friday morning in Ogden and then I got on a flight to Salinas and roped there Saturday morning,” Clemons recounted. He picked up checks or left winning money nearly everywhere.

In Nampa, Clemons took advantage of a rerun on the first calf.

“I got to see him and knew he was pretty strong but I got a good start and went at him pretty hard and tried to win something,” he said. Clemons was able to post a fast 7.5 second run that split fourth in the round.

Roping the second one the same morning, Clemons played it smart on a calf that was known to kick free of the tie, stopping the clock in 8.1 seconds.

“I just tried to make sure I tied him down and tied him tight and make sure to get back to the short go.”

It took a charter from Salinas to get back in time for the Saturday night short go and Clemons arrived just as the rodeo was starting. Fortunately, he has friends on board for the summer helping out with horses in different places and they had his horse saddled and waiting.

Joe Kidd was the go to in Nampa, an unregistered 12 year old blue roan that has been instrumental to Clemons’ rodeo career thus far.

“I’ve been riding him for four or five years and I wouldn’t be half what I am without him.”

Coming into the finals splitting fourth and fifth in the average, Clemons drew a really good calf and decided to go for the win.

“I just decided to go at him and it all worked out,” Clemons said.

His 7.7 second-run took the short go win by better than half a second and cinched the average win with 23.3 seconds on three calves, eight tenths ahead of Joel Harris.

“I really needed it,” Clemons said. He moved to 13th in the world as he navigates his first season on the road.

“I purposely came out West for a couple of weeks last year on my permit to try to figure stuff out and for some seasoning,” Clemons said. “Even with that, when I came out this year, I was raw for sure and didn’t know what I was doing. It took a few weeks to figure it out.”

With plenty of rodeo season left before the September 30 cutoff, Clemons seems to have found his way and would love nothing better than to have more than one rookie roping in Las Vegas, something that happened most recently in 2019 when Haven Meged outdueled Shad Mayfield for the title.

For now, it’s Cheyenne, Spanish Fork, Salt Lake City and more but at least no more airplanes.

“It should slow down, no more planes,” he laughed. “It’s such a pain sending horses and paying for flights.”

Clemons is ready to finish strong.

“I finally feel like I have my feet underneath me and we’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

Yates Runs ’em Down at The Ro-DAY-oh

The California Rodeo (pronounced Ro-DAY-oh) Salinas is known for its “old school” cowboy setup — long scores down the big arena and times in the nines and tens winning big money.

Marty Yates has always been known for going fast, lots of six second runs and all or nothing hail Mary’s to win go rounds.

The two seemingly opposite forces collided spectacularly in 2024 when Yates claimed one of rodeo’s most coveted buckles as the California Rodeo Salinas Champion.

Already securely inside the top ten of the standings, Yates continued his march to a tenth NFR qualification with the $8,784 payday. Yates was solid in the long rounds to punch his ticket to Short Go Sunday, then came alive with the round win to seal up the average in 31.3 seconds on three head.

What’s Next

Pioneer Week is still in full swing in Utah and a bunch of money will get handed out on Wednesday, July 24th with the Gold Medal Round in Salt Lake City along with the conclusion of both Ogden and Spanish Fork.

The Daddy of ‘Em All wraps up on Sunday, July 28 as Cheyenne Frontier Days’ big tournament rodeo concludes with its own big payoffs.

Elsewhere, there’s the Days of 76 in Deadwood, South Dakota, Chief Joseph Days in Joseph, Oregon, Nebraska’s Big Rodeo in Burwell, the Eagle (Colo.) County Fair & Rodeo along with plenty of other stops for cowboys to cash in.

PRCA World Standings as of July 22, 2024