Dawson and Dillon Graham checked the California Rodeo Salinas off their bucket list Sunday, July 19, 2026, claiming one of rodeo’s most coveted titles despite growing up a long way from the traditions that make the Salinas so special.

The Wainwright, Alberta, brothers topped the five-head aggregate with a 44.1 for $14,528 apiece. The cowboy conditions of Salinas are a far cry from the hockey-rink arenas the Grahams are used to in Canada. The only five-header in ProRodeo, Salinas is famous for having the longest scoreline in ProRodeo at 35 feet, as well as having team ropers come out of the same box.

“When we were young, in the wintertime when we were home, my grandpa has a 70-wide indoor arena,” Dillon, 25, explained. “We were lucky to go to Arizona when we were young, too, and kind of just adapted to all setups. [Salinas] is like basically pasture roping.”

While Dawson and Dillon may not have grown up dreaming about winning Salinas, they realized quickly once they started rodeoing how significant a Salinas buckle would be.

“That’s a freaking sweet rodeo,” Dawson, 27, said. “It’s one of the rodeos that’s super cool. We look forward to it every year. We’ve always done a little bit of good there—we might have placed in the average one year, and then we’ve always done good it seems like in at least one round. So, we’ve never been skunked out there, which is nice. That always helps. It’s just one of them deals that you look so forward to it. To wake up and put a sweatshirt on or a jacket, it’s just awesome.”

Five-head chase

The Grahams made quick work of the iconic setup, kicking off Salinas with an 8.3-second run in Round 1. From drawing up in Thursday night’s performance instead of the morning slack, to running five good steers in Salinas’ famous chute-run setup, the Grahams couldn’t have asked for a much better draw all week, too. And with the draw being a surprise each time you backed in the box, they focused on staying in the average.

“We’ve been there a few times, so we kind of knew if you catch five clean, you’re going to get paid no matter what you draw, it seems like,” Dillon said. “So, we had the mindset just to catch all five, and if we place in the rounds, good. If we don’t, hopefully we get the money out of the average.”

Dawson and Dillon picked up fourth in Round 2 with a 7.8 for $1,936 apiece, followed by a 10.8 in Round 3. Their 6.8-second run in Round 4 took second in the round for another $2,766 a man.

“Honestly, the first two or three steers for sure, and then the fourth steer we run, we drew amazing,” Dawson said. “I about broke barrier on the second one, and once I got out, I was like, ‘OK.’ I somehow drilled the barrier about three or four times out of five, and it just sets you up. Especially when you draw good, it makes it seem easy, which is not how it ever feels there.”

The Grahams entered the Sunday short round first in the average with time to play with, yet Dawson’s focus was on the basics after receiving some advice from their buddy team, Luke Brown and Hunter Koch.

“Before they left, I’m pretty sure Hunter told me about five times, ‘See the cow ‘til the barrier breaks,’” Dawson recalled with a laugh. “I’m pretty sure he thought I was running right through it in the short round. We knew he had a little bit of a lead and, honestly, I didn’t really know my short round steer. But I was like, ‘Just see the cow, and don’t break the barrier.’ Then my horse kind of wanted out, so then I pulled and we were super late and made it way harder than we should have.”

Hard as it may have been, their 10.4-second run was good enough for sixth in the finals for $283 a man, plus the average title for $9,543 apiece.

35-foot horsepower

Winning Salinas also means winning in the horsepower department. Dawson called on his first-stringer, Chex Yer Gun. “Outlaw” is a 14-year-old gelding who gets the call nearly everywhere Dawson nods his head, a standard set nearly 10 years ago when he started rodeoing on Outlaw. From the practice pen to jackpots and rodeos, from the little yellow arena of the Thomas & Mack to Salinas’ long score, Outlaw is successful on any setup. His edge, according to Dawson? He’s user-friendly when it’s time to nod your head. So much so his wife, Cora, placed at the Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale two years ago.

“Honestly, anybody can team rope on him,” Dawson said. “Just the amount of runs I’ve made on him. I’ve never rode him at Salinas, either. I always kind of get to feeling bad for him, and so I leave him somewhere in Utah and let him have a week off. But I knew the steers were going to be a little slower out there this year because they were older and been a bunch of places. Som I was like, ‘Why don’t I ride my easiest one?’ I made the decision to ride him out there.”

Dillon, however, chose to give his main mount some time off and rode his second-stringer, “Switch.”

“I think he’s 18 or 19 this year,” Dillon said. “I just bought him two years ago from Brett McCarroll and Blaine Murphy in Canada. I use him as a second-stringer, but he’s a really good horse. He’s just super forgiving, and I figured it’d be a good time to give Cruze the rest since he’s gonna get the rest of the year.”

Bigger picture

Thanks to Salinas, the Brothers Graham are eyeballing their second NFR qualifications again. Prior to the West Coast rodeo, Dawson and Dillon sat 20th and 16th in the 2026 PRCA world standings with $56,231.06 and $63,526.06. As of July 21, they’re now 10th and eighth in the world with $70,475.96 and $77,770.96, respectively. The win also gave them a leg in the PRCA Playoff Series standings, now sitting seventh and sixth with 618.29 points.

“We had a slow winter,” Dawson explained. “Which it wasn’t a terrible winter, it was just a little slower; nothing real big type of deal to talk about all winter. Since we’ve been out here, it hasn’t just been huge, huge, but it’s been just picking away the whole time,” Dawson admitted. “You just keep catching. You can get so wrapped up in worrying about it, and you’re going to either catch or miss. Hopefully you catch, and then you go to the next place. I don’t like to overthink it too much. It’s cool that you can get $14,000 or whatever we won right there—obviously that’s huge, and I wish we could have about a $14,000-week every week. But you’re going to have weeks where you win $2,000, you’re going to have weeks where you win $14,000; you never know. You just got to keep catching the cow.”

The Grahams left Salinas headed east to make the all-night drive to Ogden, Utah for the Monday morning slack. They’ll head next to the Cheyenne Frontier Days July 21, followed by the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo July 22. Like his big brother, Dillon is focusing on doing his job the rest of the season.

“I’m just trying to catch them every time they turn,” Dillon said. “I’m trying to not take chances and just when the steer turns, just try to get a check. I mean, we’re not trying to win first, especially at the two-headers. If we can just catch them both and place in the average, kind of minimize chances and just get them roped.”