Tyler Wade and Wesley Thorp made their second-straight 3.7-second run in Round 2 of the 2024 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo to win another $33,687.18 a man and pack another go-round buckle home from the South Point.
The win moved the reigning world champions to $269,111.92 in season earnings, $58,104.22 a man ahead of season leaders Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord.
“I don’t really get caught up in the spread or anything because literally one bad round for us and one good round for them and then a different spot in the average, it’s a whole new ball game,” said Thorp, 29, of Throckmorton, Texas, who has two gold buckles to his name. “I mean it doesn’t matter. Even in round 10, the average and the round plays such a factor that most of everything gets done then, no matter how good of a lead or not you have. So it’s like with the average paying that much, it’s going to be worse this year. It’s rope the steer, complete the course and see where it falls. But I don’t mind looking at it along the way just because it is fun to look at it from just an outside perspective. But as far as a personal, I don’t get too caught up in it.”
Wade, who won the gold buckle in 2023 and is notorious for turning steer after steer at the Finals, wants to do a better job in Round 3. In Round 2, he missed the barrier a hair and had to reach more than he’d like this early in the rodeo.
“I didn’t do Spur any justice today,” Wade, 32, of Terrell, Texas, said. “I don’t know what I was doing. The steer had fought the chute in the run through, and then I didn’t pull on him hard enough in the box. And when you pull hard, you leave hard; you don’t pull hard enough and he leaves average. And I knew that steer freaking hauled butt. And I should have had a little more grasp on him. So the steer left a little sharper, and that’s why I was late. But it’s kind of cool to know him good enough to know that in a way he messed up, but that was my fault, you know what I mean? And I just need to get a better go and it’ll make it a lot easier, because usually you just kind of take two swings and it’s pretty smooth in here and you’re not too far away. But that one was risky.”
Wade and Thorp continue to prove that horsepower reigns supreme, each man riding the 2024 AQHA/PRCA Horse of the Year in Espuela Bro and Kadabra King, the latter of which is owned by Patrick Smith and has three straight Horse of the Year awards.
“I’ve been starting toward the front of the box,” Thorp said. “He just gets a little bit excited in there. He’s fast enough to get there. I just don’t want to be at the back of the box if there’s a delay. So I’ve been going at the middle, and then just not panicking, just getting gone. As soon as he nods, at the top of his nod, I get gone and get a little width. And it’s still hard enough here to get around these steers because that steer was so sharp. And I got pretty far to the end of it. But I still wasn’t all, I wasn’t waiting on the steer when he headed him. I was just getting somewhat close to position, and then he keeps his shoulders up good and goes another stride farther unless we get to the end of the corner. But I wasn’t what I would consider all the way around the steer, but he is forgiving when I place my loop. But when I dallied, he is running backwards. It’s a difference of a tenth in here. So if the horse finishes and cuts off a tenth or two here and there, I think it’s over the long course of 10 rounds, it makes up a difference.”
Other teams of note: Erich Rogers and Paul Eaves moved from 13th and 15th in the PRCA world standings at the start of the rodeo to seventh just two rounds later. They won second in Round 2 with a 3.9-second run, one Wade and Thorp admitted looked much smoother than theirs. Rogers and Eaves have won $45,317.21 a man over two rounds. Brenten Hall and first-timer Kaden Profili were third with a 4.2, having themselves picked up $56,727.28 a man, putting them fifth in the PRCA world standings with $182,390.53 and $183,563.59.
Eight of 15 teams have caught both steers through two rounds.
