Great Lakes Circuit frontrunners Dalton Turner and Cooper Bruce have their sights set on more than just the top spots in the standings, where they currently lead the pack with $24,754.41 and $24,295.46.
For Turner, 28, a year-end title would be a full-circle moment as he decided to put full focus on his circuit goals this year. A year ago, the Arkansas header was entered around the country and made the circuit finals at No. 1 with just 21 circuit rodeos. After the year-end title slipped through his fingers in Louisville and he and his wife welcomed their baby boy in November, the 2023 Lone Star Shootout champion made the decision to stay home.
“It’s very important,” Turner said. “I mean, that was my goal this year when I set out—to win the circuit and try to get to Colorado Springs; hopefully get in some of the winter rodeos, too.”
Bruce, on the other hand, would join an elite group of circuit champion switchenders. After heeling his entire life, Bruce swapped to the head side in 2019 and won the 2023 Great Lakes Circuit heading title. Now back on the heels, the 33-year-old from Missouri has a chance to be one of few to win the circuit on both ends and potentially the first to do so back-to-back.
“It hasn’t been done but once, maybe twice in our circuit,” Bruce said of winning both the heading and heeling. “I know Ryan Von Ahn’s done it, and there might’ve been one other guy. But there haven’t been just a whole lot of guys that’s done it. And to potentially be able to do it back-to-back years like that, it would be special. You’d definitely get in an elite group for our circuit.”
But it won’t be easy. Just $3,480.50 separates Turner from second place on the head side, and $3,021.55 separates Bruce and second on the heel side. It’s also one of the toughest years in the Great Lakes Circuit as 12th on both ends has more than $10,000 won—the second highest of all the circuits, right behind Texas—and the cutoff in 2023 was $8,027.78 in the heading and $9,883.79 in the heeling.
“It’s taking more money this year to make our circuit finals than ever before,” Bruce said. “There’s a lot of good teams up here, and everybody’s been winning. I think the big deal is all our money’s staying in circuit—there’s not been a lot of out-of-circuit guys winning.”
Partnership
Back in May, Turner and Bruce both found themselves in need of partners. Having amateur rodeoed together nearly a decade ago, the chance to rope with Turner was enough to prompt Bruce to swap back to the heel side.
“I thought for my setup, Dalton was a better partner for me than if I would have stayed heading,” Bruce said. “That was the main thing. I think deep down I’ve been wanting to heel for the last couple of years, I just wasn’t capable of doing it. It’s finally worked out to where we were able to do it.
“Dalton does not mess up,” Bruce continued. “He doesn’t break the barrier very often and he catches 90% of the steers. He gives me a lot of chances to win good money; if I don’t mess up, we win money. I’ve made my share of mistakes, but that guy, he’s been good for me.”
Picking up
Turner and Bruce started their partnership off on the right foot, winning $1,909 a man at their breakout rodeo: Claremore, Oklahoma’s Will Rogers Stampede. They followed that up the same week with $1,615 each at the Old Fort Days Rodeo in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
June brought in $5,433 a piece, but they really got the ball rolling after the Fourth of July.
“We were just kind of like clicking along, and then we won $6,000 Spooner (Wisconsin) week,” Turner said. “And then the two weeks after that we won another $5,000. Those three weeks, they were kind of our best three. That’s when things started going more our way.”
All in all, Turner and Bruce each pocketed $11,114 in July. August started slow but turned around at the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo. They roped two steers in 11.4 seconds to take the average win, and to pick up checks in the rounds. Those $3,973 efforts put their season back on track.
“There’s really no other circuit rodeos that you can win $4,000 at in one rodeo,” Turner said. “It’s a two-header, so you get the average and all that. It’s just a lot more money to be won there than anywhere else.”
Seal the deal
With roughly 13 rodeos left on the Great Lakes Circuit front—including co-approved Prairie and Southeastern Circuit rodeos—Turner and Bruce are entered up.
“We’re going to go to as many of them as we can get in,” Bruce said with a laugh. “We’re not going to slow down. We kind of thought about it, but we roped like crap last week and didn’t win much. So, we’re going to just finish out and go to the rest of them that we can go to and see where it turns out.”
READ: Cooper Bruce and Wyatt Kanan Rise to the Occasion to Win 2023 Great Lakes Circuit Titles
The team heads next to co-approved The Big 94.5 Country Topeka PRCA Rodeo in Kansas and the Cattlemen Days Rodeo in Ashland, Missouri, with hopes of widening their lead.
“We’re just going to try to win as much as we can between now and [the end of the season],” Turner said. “That way, we hopefully build on our lead. Our plan is to have a little cushion going into Louisville, which it’s going to be hard to do, but that’s the game plan right now.”
The 2024 Great Lakes Circuit Finals will be in Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 14-16.
