Wacey Finkbeiner has a track record of outdoing the best bull riders in Canada and it is no different at the Canadian Finals Rodeo this week.
Thursday was the second night the Ponoka native beat the competition with a score of 87.75 after an 87.25 winning point ride on Wednesday. The first-place finish earned him $10,530 and a total of $28,890.
“I feel like it is kind of snowballing in the right direction right now, so hopefully it will keep rolling in the next few days and hopefully (I’ll) get a gold buckle come Sunday,” he said.
The 26-year-old is no stranger to the bull he rode, Brahma Boots Chrome.
“I’d been on him twice previously and he got the best of me both times so I’m pretty dang happy to get the best of him today,” he said.
“The two previous times I had him he’d go both ways and get me on the switch back. He does that every single time and I knew that so as long as you’re riding around to the right and play catch-up back to the left, you will get a pretty good score on that bull.”
Bareback rider Ky Marshall from Bowden scored 86.75, taking home the win Thursday.
After a fourth-place finish Tuesday, Marshall has taken home $12,960 so far.
Jake Vold from Ponoka ranked 11th place last night after breaking a CFR record on Wednesday.
While Red Deer’s Carter Sahli earned the top spot in junior steer riding Wednesday, he said Thursday was a tough ride as he failed to qualify. His CFR purse right now is $1,440.
“The second round on Wednesday couldn’t have gone any better,” he said. “I had a really good cow and then today I had a pretty good cow, but she threw some dirty stuff at me and it didn’t go as planned.”
Instead, Yellowhead County’s Tristen Manning took the top spot for a second time this week.
“My ride was very difficult,” he said. “I had to try a lot and give a full effort to ride my cow tonight.”
He added, “If I know that cow, I know what to do and know what moves she’s going to twist at me. It just all depends if I am ready or not. If I’m ready I’m going to try my best to ride that cow.”
Callahan Crossley said she loves Red Deer right now.
That’s because the barrel rider from Oregon picked up a second win Thursday and a total of $28,890 in prize money.
She was riding her 20-year-old Quarter Horse Brownie
“I just felt like he was a lot snappier than the last night,” she said.
“I’ve been lucky. It’s been very, very deep and for some of the other horses, it might be harder. He’s really big and he manages to handle the deep ground okay. Tonight, being tenth out, I was expecting it to be very deep and it seemed like it held up a lot better longer down the list.”
The top scores for Day 3 of the CFR 45 are as follows:
Bareback:
Ky Marshall – 86.75 points on Kesler Rodeo’s Street Dance
Steer wrestling:
Stephen Culling – 3.6 seconds
Team roping:
Brady Tryan/Kasper Roy – 4.6 seconds
Saddle bronc riding:
Cort Scheer – 86 points on Magic Carpet
Tie-down roping:
Morgan Grant – 8.3 seconds
Barrel racing:
Callahan Crossley – 13.569 seconds
Bull riding:
Wacey Finkbeiner – 87.75 points on Brahma Boots Chrome
Steer riding leader:
Tristen Manning – 77 points
Novice Bareback Champion:
Mason Helmeczi
Novice Saddle Bronc Champion:
Cooper Thatcher
