For Immediate Release
News Release
May 31, 2011
AIRDRIE, ALTA - Tanner Milan is back in familiar territory in professional rodeo's Canadian standings. The 27-year-old Cochrane steer wrestler put together a leading $5,490 weekend at the last two May rodeos in Grande Prairie and Bonnyville to overtake Canadian champion Curtis Cassidy in the rankings. Milan was the top money winner on the weekend, winning Bonnyville with a 4.3-second run and finishing second at Grande Prairie with a time of 3.6 seconds.
Grande Prairie was the opening stop of the 11-rodeo Canadian Wrangler Tour series and paid him $3,220. His Bonnyville cheque was worth $2,270. The two payoffs ran his income for the season to an event-best $8,228 in the Canadian standings. Cassidy, who cashed second at Bonnyville for $1,974, was moved to second at $7,991.
"It was darn sure one of the better weekends I've had and it's been awhile," Milan chuckled.
Ironically, Cassidy had a hand in his success, leasing Milan his bulldogging horse Magnum.
Milan's campaign last year came to an early end when he tore up his right knee and hamstring at the Ponoka Stampede. His doctors didn't clear him to return until this season's opening rodeo in mid-March at Camrose. Late in the healing process, Milan enlisted a personal trainer at Sculptures in Airdrie and lost 50 pounds.
"I went in at 265, trimmed right up and came out at 215," Milan said. "I was happy with myself. I think it might have helped my knee more than anything, having less weight to pack around."
The steers he drew at the two rodeos weren't the pups of the pen.
"The one I had at Grande Prairie they'd broke the barrier on him the last two times so I knew he was a little slower leaving the chute," Milan explained. "I let him get a longer head start and caught up really quick.
"The one at Bonnyville they were 5.1 and 6 something on and he was a bit slower out of the chute. So I let him get out a little further, too."
Prior to last summer's wreck, Milan finished third or better in the Canadian standings during the four-year span from 2006 through 2009. Each time he went down to the last day of the year-end Canadian Finals Rodeo while contending for the championship buckle.
The weekend bulldogging turned out to be a bit of a family affair. Milan's younger brother Straws, who qualified for his first CFR last year, also had a strong weekend, to collect a second-best $4,330. He placed third at
Bonnyville with a time of 4.5 seconds and tied for third at Grande Prairie with a 3.7-second run. And Baillie Milan, the oldest of the three siblings, caught a $145 cheque in the tie-down roping at Bonnyville.
Elsewhere, a couple of rookies stuck their names on the leaderboard. Ty Taypotat, a 19-year-old out of Regina, soared into the lead in the bareback riding standings after a $3,685 weekend that saw him win Bonnyville and finish second at Grande Prairie. He was 85.5 points on stock contractor Bob Baird's bay gelding Dusty Dan at Grande Prairie and 82 on Shane Franklin's Scottish Lass, a red roan mare, at Bonnyville. Both were horses selected for last year's CFR. Taypotat, who started the year on his permit, tops the rankings with $5,905.
And Lee Ann Rust, a 53-year-old rookie out of Stephenville, Tex., topped the barrel racers with income of $4,645. She won Grande Prairie and was fifth at Bonnyville to move into third in the Canadian standings with $5,994. Gaylene Buff, from Westwold, B.C., went to the top of the rankings with $8,548 after a $3,926 weekend.
Canadian rodeo fans also got their first look at the newest member of the world all-around crowd. Oregon's Bobby Mote, the four-time world champion bareback rider who has taken up team roping on a serious note, was the top money winner in that event at the two rodeos with $2,941. He and veteran heeler Mike Beers, the 1984 world champion, won Bonnyville with a time of 4.6 seconds and finished third at Grande Prairie in 5.3 seconds.
The June pro rodeo schedule kicks off this coming weekend with Rod Hay's saddle bronc riding event at Wildwood and the oldest annual rodeo on the calendar at Hand Hills.
Please visit www.rodeocanada.com for rodeo results and standings.
Dwayne Erickson
For
Canadian Rodeo News
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