Cody Snow and Junior Nogueira got their first go-round win of the week in Round 6 with a 3.9-second run, worth 26,230.77 each.
That puts their six-round total at 56,115.39 world standings points each, and they are 12th in the average with a time of 27.90 on four head. Snow and Nogueira are third and fifth in the PRCA world standings with 125,343.45 and 114,199.36 won, respectively.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yv2vkDzTb4c
“It was a good run, and we had a great steer,” said Nogueira, 30, of Presidente Prudente, Brazil. “He did a great job.”
“We needed it,” Snow, 24, of Los Olivos, California, added.
Snow, in his fifth Finals, has stayed on his buckskin mare, Annie—the 12-year-old mare aboard whom he won the NFR average title in 2019 with Wesley Thorp.
“She’s been great,” Snow said. “I’m glad to have her back.”
Nogueira, who’s been to the rodeo’s big show seven times, made a game-day decision before Round 1 to opt for Timon, the 10-year-old gelding registered as Kiehnes Frosty Pepto.
“I just thought about it, and decided I needed to pick one and go with it all the way through,” Nogueira said of the decision between Timon and Hali, his AQHA World Champion mare. “I just ended up riding him. I almost went back on her, but I had a game plan, so I wanted to stick with it.”
While plenty of teams have chosen to change up their horsepower after a mishap in earlier rounds, despite a miss on the heel side and a barrier on the head side, Snow and Nogueira stayed hooked on Annie and Timon.
“They are the best horses we got, honestly,” Nogueira said. “Not saying the other horses aren’t amazing if we need them. But we rode them the whole year, the whole summer, pretty much everywhere where we needed to win. So we have a really good run on them. His mare is one of the best head horses ever, and my heel horse is a really good horse out there, too.”
How are your eyes doing? Listen to Cody Snow and Junior Nogueira on “The Score” HERE.
They’ve been getting in morning practice sessions every day throughout the Finals, keeping their confidence up.
“We’re just making a couple runs every morning,” Snow said. “Just like we do throughout the year. I’m just making sure I’m throwing good loops and riding my horse. You know, we get to rope every morning and make a couple good runs, and work on our fundamentals a little bit, that way everything is fresh on our minds, for me.”
In Round 6, Dustin Egusquiza and Travis Graves jumped back to first in the average after their 4.5-second run moved them to 46.10 seconds on six head and split last hole, worth 2,115.38 world championship points. If the rodeo ended tonight and average placings were calculated into the standings, Egusquiza and Graves would be world champions. TRJ
