Th Champ—Clay O’Brien Cooper—will heel for Blake Teixeira at the 2025 Reno Rodeo, giving fans another chance to see the 64-year-old, seven-time world champ compete against the best of the best on one of ProRodeo’s biggest stages.
Teixeira and Cooper will rope at Reno Thursday, June 26.
Cooper won the Reno Rodeo in 2004 with David Key, and he last competed in the PRCA in 2022. In addition to his seven gold buckles, Cooper has qualified for 29 Wrangler National Finals Rodeos, won four NFR aggregate titles and last qualified for the Finals 10 years ago in 2015 with Derrick Begay, finishing third in the world with $219,584 won.
“Everything feels pretty good,” Cooper, of Gardnerville, Nevada, said. “I couldn’t rope for 12 weeks, and I started rehabbing on the third day after surgery. I rehabbed for the whole 12 weeks and then could start swinging my rope. I’m at eight-and-a-half months or so, and it just keeps getting better.”
Teixeira, 40, won the Gold Country Pro Rodeo in Auburn, California, already in 2025, so he had an outside chance of getting into Reno.
“Jake and I talked about entering but neither one of us had been anywhere,” Cooper said. “We entered Livermore and Fallon, too. So we’re just going to three local rodeos to make a couple runs in together. Jake (Barnes) and I are going to Salinas and enter the rodeo and the gold card. I don’t like to drive very far anymore, but I still like to go and compete. I’m entered at the World Series Finale in five ropings, and that will be my focus of 2025 to really stand a chance to win something.”
Related:
