Rodeo Update

Big Week in Utah

By Ann Bleiker

Utah has been good to Kassie Mowry this past week winning both the Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo in Salt Lake City and the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo. She also finished seventh in Spanish Fork. While not official it is looking like she will be the high money winner at these three rodeos to earn the second annual Top Hand Pioneer Week award bonus of $15,000 awarded to the top female and male money earners at the three Utah Rodeos.

In Salt Lake City, the Only Gold Medal Rodeo in the World, it was a race to the finish with Kassie Mowry of Dublin, Texas, laying down the fastest time of the night with a 16.75-second run. Mowry relied on her trusty stead Force The Goodbye “Jarvis” who turned in times this week in Salt Lake of 16.71, 16.86 and then the gold medal run, the fastest time of the performances, with a 16.75.

            “I’ve had some great horses in my career and this horse tops it all,” said Mowry after winning Gold. “He’s just taken me for a ride and we’re having a lot of fun.”

            This was Mowry’s first time to step on the medal stand in Salt Lake City. Joining her was Taycie Matthews with the silver after stopping the clock in 16.93 seconds and Dona Kay Rule captured the bronze in 16.98 seconds.

            Mowry added $20,000 to her 2024 earnings from Salt Lake City along with $13,134 from Ogden and $3,148 from Spanish Fork.

In the breakaway roping in Salt Lake City, it was a tie at the top with Willow Wilson and Rickie Fanning both stopping the clock in 3.1 seconds on gold medal night. Wilson picked up the Gold based on the tiebreaker that had to go back to average time in the progressive round. Rylee George of Oakdale, California took the bronze with a time of 2.8 seconds.

            Fanning and George also placed in Ogden and Spanish Fork this week. Fanning took ninth in Ogden and was 11^th in the average at Spanish Fork, while George took third at both Ogden and Spanish Fork.