Tyler Wade was going left tonight, whether Cole Davison was ready or not.
Thankfully, Davison was ready. The result? A 3.7-second run that won them their second go-round of the week, worth $26,230.77 each, a run that broke the third-go-round fast-time record of 3.8 previously held by Wade Wheatley and Kyle Lockett (2002), Daniel Green and Kory Koontz (2003) and Travis Tryan and Michael Jones (2009).
[Related: Wade and Davison Tee-Off with Round 1 Win]
[Listen: BONUS Short Score with Round 1 Winners Wade and Davison]
“From my standpoint, there was a 3.9 right off the bat and I just kind of laughed. I said, ‘Don’t be stupid,'” Wade said. “But 4.6 and 4.7 were third and fourth. So I told myself, ‘Just do the same deal. If we finish good, we’ll be good. Get out and turn the steer.’ When I got out, I pulled a little bit. I didn’t love the spot I was in, but that steer was so good. He was just waiting on me. I kind of ducked a little bit, and that steer hit and stayed on the end of it.”
Davison, for his part, took a better start than he did the previous night when he missed a similar shot. In Round 2, Davison said, he was more relaxed toward the back of the box, a mistake he didn’t make in Round 3.
“Tonight was a lot better than last night,” Davison, who again rode his good gelding Apollo, said. “I try to stay relaxed and just go heel here, but last night I over did it… I was at the back of the box last night, and tonight I got three or four foot in front of it to where I could get a good go. I could see the feet. I just try to get to my spot and put as much rope down as I can and that steer was really good to heel tonight.”
Wade wasn’t satisfied with how he rode his horse across the pen, but his new bay gelding Spur didn’t seem to mind.
“His horse finished good, and I didn’t face that great because I wasn’t riding my horse good,” Wade said. “But it worked out good.”
Wade picked up Spur this summer, but the horse was laid up for a few months with injury, so the NFR is one of Wade’s first bit outings on him.
“This has been the most challenging year of my life rodeoing,” Wade said. “We were winning; it wasn’t like we were losing. Billie Jack his horse was so good and I just kept letting him down and letting him down. I rode my good horse Fonzie at eight rodeos and won $32,000. So I was stuck for the summer. I couldn’t go home; we had enough won to stay hooked regardless. Fonzie went down, and I bought one that didn’t work. And I had a young one that was really good and I didn’t know because she needed another year of riding before I really hauled her. We just got thrown to the fire with her and a third-string horse that’s an average horse—he’s not a terrible horse but he doesn’t hurt you but he doesn’t help you win. It was just a challenging year to say the least.”
Getting things figured out with Spur just in time for the Finals was a huge shift for Wade, even though heading into Round 1 he wasn’t even sure which horse he was going to ride.
“If he works the way he should practicing, how he should, he’s a good horse to have,” Wade said. “This bay feels good. I might bite my tongue later but I’m pretty excited about my future with him.”
Wade and Davison’s two go-round wins this week have helped catapult them from 14th in the world at the start of the Finals to third and fourth in the standings, with $135,855.78 and $134,370.85 won, respectively.
Clay Smith, despite his first miss in 2019, still leads the world standings with $186,742.99. Jade Corkill dropped to second in the world with $144,868.70. Kaleb Driggers, who won fourth in the go round with a 4.6-second run, is second in the heading with $153,557.86. His partner Junior Nogueira is now first in the world with $150,877.22.
Full results:
1. Tyler Wade and Cole Davison, 3.7, $26,730.33 each
2. Brenten Hall and Chase Tryan, 3.9, $20,730.77 each
3. Cody Snow and Wesley Thorp, 4.0, $15,653.85 each
4. Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira, 4.6, $11,000.00 each
5. Chad Masters and Joseph Harrison, 4.7, $6,769.23 each
6. Matt Sherwood and Hunter Koch, 5.1, $4,230.77 each
