Trevor Brazile will already have pocketed $21,000 on the 4-year-old gelding Tuckin Away Buckles before he rides into the box high call for his short-round steer at the fifth annual American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Championships.
How to Watch the American Rope Horse Futurity Association’s World Championships
The buckskin gelding by Brazile and partner Miles Baker’s stud Show Me The Buckles and out of the Hollywood Vintage mare Tuckers Vintage accumulated 686.74 points heading into the short round Friday night, securing the win in the 3- and 4-Year-Old Incentive that pays out on three head, worth $14,000. He also won the second round, worth another $4,000, and finished second to Brazile and Lari Dee Guy’s American Greed in Round 3, worth another $3,000.
“I really love every part of the run on him,” Brazile said. “I love handling steers on him. I can handle the steer like I’m at a jackpot, or I can put a little sauce on it and drag his hind leg through there. If you have enough steer to show him off, he’s really fun to show.”
Watch Tuckin Away Buckles’ Training Progression at Roping.com
Brazile and “Dagger” are 4.7 points ahead of the second callback of Tate Kirchenschlager and Born In The Boondocs, with fewer than 20 points separating high call and the 25th callback team of Shane Philipp and PR Genuine Bug for a tough, tight short round that kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 22, 2021.
Dagger also won the Badlands Bit & Spurs 4-Year-Old Futurity in Rapid City, South Dakota in August, and he had $26,000 in their four outings before this World Championships. He was also the 4-Year-Old Incentive champ at Rock Spring, Wyoming’s Royal Crown Futurity in both the heading and the heeling.
And just hours after he and Brazile dominated the heading, Joseph Harrison climbed aboard and showed him in the first round of the heeling to a solid 221.03.
“I just feel like he’s upped his game to where he really understands both jobs,” Brazile said. “Different cues mean different things event by event.There’s so many things when you’re talking about a 4-year-old. There’s so many ups and downs. With him being a multi-event horse, that’s even harder. When heading and heeling on them, sometimes they’re feeling really great in one and not the other, the trick is peeking in both coming into October. He worked great in the heading, and he felt great leading up to this in the heeling.”
Brazile and partner in the Relentless Remuda Baker maxed out their entries with five head each in the heading, and they will bring back four of the top 10, including last year’s high call horse of American Greed at fifth call, last year’s 4-year-old Incentive champ BoomBoom Firecracker at seventh and Blu Gin and Baker at eighth.
“Anytime you have 10 horses entered in something, some of it will be good and some of it will be bad. It’s just like when I was rodeoing—you do this event and that event, and it always won’t be perfect. There’s things that happen. It’s so much different because you’re made because you messed up. But we’ve been working on developing these horses and this was their time in the spotlight, and you hate to not let them show what they got. It’s just part of it. They made less mistakes than we did today, so that’s a win for the time spent this year. Now we just have to go finish it.”
While Kirchenschlager is Brazile’s closest short-round competition, he’s far from his only. Former futurity champ Andy Holcomb has two head in the short round, Dreams To Watch at third call and Walkin The Dog at sixth. Clay Smith has Apaches Promise at third call and GCH JettotheSun at ninth.
Open Heading Payout:
- $23,000
- $18,000
- $16,000
- $14,000
- $12,000
- $10,000
- $8,000
- $6,000
- $4,000
- $3,000
- $2,000
- $2,000
- $2,000
- $2,000
- $2,000
- (16-25 take home $1,500)
