No. 6 | $168,489
- Age: 34
- Hometown: Broken Bow, Oklahoma
- Career earnings: $2,135,928
- Major Rodeos: NFR; RAM National Circuit Finals; Texas Circuit Finals; San Angelo (Texas) Stock Show & Rodeo; Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days; Greeley (Colo.) Stampede; Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo; San Antonio (Texas) Stock Show & Rodeo; Fort Worth (Texas) Stock Show & Rodeo; Dodge City (Kan.) Roundup Rodeo; Snake River Stampede (Nampa, Idaho); National Western Stock Show & Rodeo (Denver, Colo.); Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo; Spanish Fork (Utah) Fiesta Days Rodeo.
- Major Ropings: USTRC National Finals of Team Roping, Bob Fiest Invitational, Windy Ryon Memorial Roping, Wildfire Open to the World
- NFR Qualifications: 11 (2015-2025)
- PRCA World Championships: 2 (2018-2019)
- Star Horsepower: Marty, Hello Lashes, Apache Promise
- Rope Choice: Rattler Triton S
Two-time World Champion header Clay Smith has been a consistent name on the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) roster for the last 10 years.
But before that, he was a genuine team roping child prodigy, winning dummy ropings and showing up on morning TV shows with his two-time NFR-qualifying younger brother, Jake Smith. The 34-year-old from Broken Bow, Oklahoma, has been on the ProRodeo trail since 2012, starting out heading for Jake.
Aboard Marty—Smith’s famous gray, grade gelding—he carried on the tradition of his namesake, Hall of Famer and World Champion Clay O’Brien Cooper, and was immediately a winner.
Those first few years, he and Jake collected wins in Hermiston, Oregon, and Livingston, Montana. Smith also won the Wildfire Open to the World twice—first in 2014 with Will Woodfin and again in 2015 with Jake.
“This is a big deal for me,” Clay told The Team Roping Journal after the win in 2015. “The money is huge, and it really is $100,000 for us, because it all goes back to the same place. We don’t separate our money. It’s not your money or my money in our family—it’s ours. Every dollar goes right back into what we do. And I couldn’t have picked two better guys to win it with. First Will, who’s our best friend. Now my brother. It doesn’t get any better.”
The 2015 ProRodeo season saw Smith team up with Paul Eaves and qualify for his first NFR—a start that sparked a dominant four-year run.
In those four years, Smith and Eaves picked up 22 go-round wins and captured a world championship in 2018. That season, Smith finished with $289,921, setting a year-end earnings record for headers at the time. He placed in seven rounds, winning Rounds 2 and 5, and finished third in the average.
“In this building, for us, the best thing to do is hit the barrier, and I was a little late, and I reached a little bit,” Smith said of their final steer in 2018. “I didn’t do a very good job. Paul hammered him.”
Smith added his second gold buckle in 2019, starting the year with Jake Long and closing it out with Jade Corkill. That season included wins at the Texas Circuit Finals (Waco, Texas), the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo (Denver, Colorado), and the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo (Kissimmee, Florida). During Cowboy Christmas, he and Corkill added $25,419 to their total before heading to Las Vegas, where they won Round 2, placed in five others and collected $118,308 to secure Smith’s second consecutive world title.
“Our plan has kind of been the same all week, so I didn’t have to change,” Smith told The Team Roping Journal after the 2019 victory. “Every night we was trying to win something. If we win the round, good. If we didn’t, as long as we were getting checks. I knew tonight, that if some of those guys did good, I was going to have to place in the round and sure enough it was going to be good. I knew I was going to have to place in the round to hold my spot. You can see on the TVs, and those guys were right in front of me.”
Over the next two seasons, Smith and Corkill continued to thrive, notching two more NFR qualifications together, 10 go-round placings and three more round wins. During that stretch, Smith picked up major victories across the country, including Spanish Fork, Utah; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and San Antonio, Texas.
From 2022 to 2024, Smith roped with three different partners—Jake Long, Paden Bray and Coleby Payne—making his eighth, ninth and tenth NFRs. His 2022 season took an unexpected turn when he broke his right knee at Prescott, Arizona’s World’s Oldest Rodeo. Tied into the saddle and determined to make another NFR run, Smith competed with a specially designed stirrup and still qualified for Vegas.
The 2025 season brought yet another new chapter for Smith. After beginning the year with Payne, he picked up recently crowned Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year, Nicky Northcott, midway through the season—a partnership that quickly paid off.
“He’s the best up-and-coming guy that there’s been in a long time,” Smith said of his new partner. “He catches two feet when you need to go fast or just need to catch. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes and wins in big situations too. He just wants to rope.”
Together, the pair won Kennewick, Washington, and Filer, Idaho, finishing the regular season sixth in the world with $168,490.
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