Luke Brown and Trey Yates kicked off their 2025 ProRodeo partnership with the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo title Jan. 26, for $11,718 a man.
Brown and Yates won the finals of the tournament-style rodeo in Denver with a 4.2-second run, worth $5,506 apiece. The win is a first for both 15-time NFR header Brown and three-time NFR heeler Yates.
“I’ve been close a couple of times and won second a couple of times, and I look forward to that rodeo every year,” Brown, 50, said. “It’s not the easiest one to get to, but starting the year off and the first big rodeo of the year—all that—I always kind of look forward to Denver. To finally win it, that’s pretty cool.”
The emotions were high as Brown and Yates were awarded their buckles. Colorado’s Yates has a long history with Denver, having grown up going with his dad, 21-time NFR team roper J.D. Yates.
READ: Family First: Hall of Famer J.D. Yates
“Obviously, as I got older, he wasn’t rodeoing full time, but he would always go to Denver, so I’ve been going to Denver for a long time,” Yates, 29, said. “I think I’ve placed in the second round a couple times, maybe, but never even made the short round. There’s just a lot. It was Luke and I’s first rodeo, so we obviously have been practicing and talking and have high aspirations as a team of what we want. We have the same goals and he’s a workaholic as far as roping, and that’s fun for me—I love to rope. Another thing is my godfather Don Tisdall, he is a big part of the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo, he has been for a lot of years, and my godmother Joyce. And my good bay horse that I’ve rode since I started rodeoing, Dude, he’s been out for two years, but thank you to some good vets and good friends of mine, Phil and Sherri Tearney, he’s back. That was his first rodeo since San Angelo in 2023, and he was actually Joyce’s horse, my godmother. So they got to watch the first two rounds, and their daughter Patty was there and it’s just a special win.”
Denver Strategy
Brown and Yates started their trek to the Denver title Jan. 20, in Bracket 5. They won the first round of their set with a 4.7, worth $3,340 a man for splitting third overall, and advanced to the Semi-Finals with a 12.3 on two steers. While the left wall can come quick for some headers inside the Denver Coliseum, Yates credits Brown for his job on the head side.
“The header’s the quarterback, so the header controls the outcome,” Yates, the 2018 NFR champ, said. “Whatever the header did most likely dictated how the heeler did, in my opinion. And Luke all week, besides our first steer, he never really went a long ways. Which, that steer was straight or stepped right where he had room in the arena to use his rope. The rest of the time he got all the steers on a short rope. And that to me was the difference maker, where he could pull the steers and get them hopping no matter if they had to come back up the wall or what we had to do.”
They laid down a 6.0-second run to win second in Semi-Finals 1 and $2,872 a man, punching their tickets to the 12-man finals. Brown and Yates didn’t go into the short round with a set plan, but as the second-to-last team to rope in the short round, they were able to adapt their approach as they watched to rodeo play out.
“Lightning (Aguilera) made a pretty good run, and then there was a lot of mess up there for a long time,” Brown explained. “I kind of backed off and was planning on going just to catch, and then about four teams before I went, they went to blasting them; everybody was catching and they were going at them pretty good. So then I figured I would be better off to take a start and try to win something good.”
A good start and a good steer, Brown and Yates turned in a 4.2 to claim the Denver win.
Brown and Yates’ winter horsepower
Brown, who has three NFR average titles to his name, called on his 16-year-old gelding DM Jet Off, aka “Buddha.” Over the last three years, Buddha’s become Brown’s right-hand man.
“I swear, I don’t know if he gets better, but I ride him better every year,” Brown said. “It seems like we get more together. He worked great at the Finals, and I ran two steers on him before I left to go to Denver; it’s the first time I’d roped any on him since the Finals. He is just set in his ways, and it’s kind of always been that way. My trust and my confidence on him have gotten so much better in the last year or two. I have a couple other horses that I rode and took to Odessa and everything else, but it seems like when it comes to having a big deal, I know him like the back of my hand, so there’s no question if he’s not the better answer that day.”
Like Brown, Yates has an arsenal of great horses to choose from. But with his standout gelding “Dude,” registered as Romancing The Chics, back after being sidelined from an injury halfway through 2023, he got the Denver call.
“There’s a level of confidence I have on that horse, and for me confidence has been an issue for a little while now,” Yates admitted. “When I stepped on him the other day, it was unlike anything I had felt, honestly, since the NFR probably in 2018. So that’s a huge deal. He’s a freak athlete: He can run, he can stop, he can shut the run down and he reads the steer through the turn every time. I mean just like the run [in the finals], Luke did a great job, he nailed the barrier, he had the steer on a shorter rope—which was so important because that steer was headed left—and Dude, he just hit his butt going through the turn.”
Setting the tone for 2025
Brown and Yates head next to the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo for Bracket 5 on Friday, Jan. 30. The Denver win gives them an early push in the 2025 world standings and a confidence boost needed as they embark on the long NFR hunt.
“It’s one down, 79 rodeos to go is the way I look at it,” Yates said. “It’s a step in the right direction. But I can honestly say that this was the first time in a long time I’ve went somewhere I expected to win the rodeo from before the rodeo started. I said, ‘We’re going to win Denver,’ and I didn’t give myself a choice. But I didn’t ever press it—it just came together the way it was supposed to in my mind, the way I drew it up in my mind. And that’s one thing I’ve learned, pray for things as if you’ve already received them. I guess that that was just something I knew. I had a feeling; I had it made up in my mind that that’s what was going to take place.”
Denver is also one of the first stops of the PRCA Playoff Series tour, which wraps up each September with the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls. With a team roping purse of $288,888, Sioux Falls plays a determining role in the NFR field each year, giving the Denver win even more significance.
“The crazy thing about [Sioux Falls] is if you’re not 10th or better going into the standings that last week, you’re not safe,” Brown said. “And it’s crazy. It pays so good, that’s one of the biggest paying rodeos of the year with not very many teams that get to go. I’ve been lucky to do good there the last two years and had a chance to win it the last day both times. So, of course that is huge on my bucket list to get back there. They give points at every (tour) rodeo, so it’s really hard because I am more of a catcher type header anyway. You show up at the tour rodeos and you don’t want to miss, but most of them pay so stinking good now that if you’re not trying to win something, at the same time, you’re missing out. But you can’t take a no time because it could come down to a few points. It’s a tricky game, and you got to get to as many tour rodeos as you can.”
