It’s almost to the point we can count on death, taxes and Trevor winning the tie-down roping.
Already in this young season, he’s won the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, finished second at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and now, has won the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.
“I’m cruising in the calf roping, I’d like to turn it on in the team roping,” the ever-improving, ever-critical Brazile said. “Last year was a better start in the team roping than it was the calf roping, so there’s no rest for the multi-event weary.”
In Denver, he was high man back and simply had to wait and see how fast he needed to be and then be that fast. In San Antonio, he qualified in the middle of the pack, but the winner-take-all format changed his strategy.
“The middle of the pack doesn’t mean anything in a sudden-death situation,” he said. “When it started off fast from the very first roper tonight, it didn’t matter whether you were first or last.”
Interestingly, at each of the above three rodeos, three men have been in contention: Brazile, Houston Hutto and youngster Shane Hanchey from Louisiana. Brazile is two-for-three.
“Those guys have roped great all year,” Brazile said. “Everywhere I see, they’ve been winning. They’re off to a great start and everybody knows that’s the easiest way to get it done, right now at the biggest rodeos. But I’ve been doing it a few more years than those guys. They’re super-talented and they’re not going to do anything but get better, but it was just my night tonight.”
While it was his night, the win didn’t fall in his lap. Seven of the 12 times in the short go were 7.8 or faster. And while Brazile looked to have the best calf in the pen, in fact, it wasn’t. The two-time world champion tie-down roper just made him look that way.
“They hadn’t had much success on that calf because he’s got to be handled just right,” he explained. “If he gets too much pressure from the rope, he’ll just lay down. They got disqualified on him in the semifinals for that same reason. My horse has a lot to do with me overcoming that. I can make some adjustments, but he’s not as physical and let’s me do my job whatever the case may be.”
In this case, his job was to handle the calf in a way that let Brazile put the pressure on the pack, which is exactly what happened with his 7.0-second run.
“There’s something different about a $12,000 round versus a round that pays $2,000,” he said. “You want to be peaking tonight. Championships are won and lost for less than this round pays. I was blessed tonight, everything went great, I did my job, my horse did his and we had a good calf. Every rodeo means something throughout the year and San Antonio hasn’t won best indoor rodeo of the year for five years straight for nothing. It’s a big boost anytime you do well here, much less win the rodeo.”
In sum, he added $16,593 to his world standings and took over the top spot.
