Trevor Brazile will get another chance at the one title in his $7-million-and-then-some career that’s eluded him—the ARHFA World Championship—when he ropes in Fort Worth Friday, Oct. 18 at high call in the Open heading short round on 4-year-old gelding RR Gunners Affair.
Full Results: 2024 ARHFA World Championship
Brazile and RR Gunners Affair, owned by Jared Wittwer, enter the short round with a score of 707.84 on three head, a full 4.13 points ahead of Andy Holcomb and Cheyenne Red Cat at second call.
“He feels really pure right now,” Brazile said of the 4-year-old. “Obviously all these young horses go through stages and you want them peaking on these big stages. Sometimes it’s not your timeline. But this one is really pure right now. I had a good feeling about it going into it.”
Must-Watch: RR Gunners Affair and Baker at 90 Rides
The gelding—by reining stallion Gunners Special Nite—is a maternal sibling to WND Affair, the horse Brazile and Relentless Remuda partner Miles Baker owned that won an ARHFA World Championship on the heel side with Joseph Harrison. The unassuming sorrel that Baker started in the Remuda program as a 2-year-old will give Brazile another chance to head a steer for the ARHFA World Championship, a spot he’s been in three times before but has yet to sealed the deal.
Watch: Miles Baker Rides RR Gunners Affair as a 2-Year-Old with 90 Rides
“This is a big deal because it’s not just me,” Brazile said. “It would pay more to win second and third than to win first, but it’s cool for horses and owners. It’s a complicated scenario. There’s a lot of people, you know, involved. And it’s fun when they get recognized too.”
The Relentless Remuda is team roping’s all-time leading owner, having won $975,553 on horses they own alone since QData started tracking roping numbers. Brazile and his wife, Shada, also own Treda LLC, which has won another $459,413 as owners—much of that on BoomBoom Firecracker, a horse Brazile was high back on at the Futurity but never quite sealed the deal with in his show career.
Brazile also was high back aboard Lari Dee Guy’s American Greed and the Remuda’s Tuckin Away Buckles, but both came up short.
The Remuda won $413,393 of that $975,533 in 2024—but a mere $33,537 of that money was on RR Gunners Affair, perhaps the least decorated of the horses the Remuda has entered in Fort Worth at the ARHFA World Championship. Brazile and Baker bring eight horses back to the short round of the nine they brought to town in the heading.
“We said it from the start that it was going to be a dog fight,” Brazile said. “Everybody executed really well yesterday. You look through that list, it’s just tight. The game has elevated so much—I remember making the short round with a great chance with a barrier. Now, a barrier is the cutoff to get out of the first round. This year, I don’t think a leg made it back. That’s tough.”
There were no legs for Brazile and Baker, who had the help of reigning and two-time World Champion Heeler Wesley Thorp.
“When you heel as good as Wesley does the only negative to it is people expect it day in day out,” Brazile said. “It’s awesome, but it doesn’t surprise me.”
Brazile already picked up $2,000 on RR Gunners Affair for third in Round 1 and $4,000 for the Round 3 win to solidify his spot in the short round.
Baker started RR Gunners Affair as a 2-year-old in Decatur at the Remuda’s headquarters, a foundation that Brazile sees as critical to what the horse is doing now.
“This is the third one we’ve had out of this mare line,” Brazile explained. “And to have it started there on the place, by Miles, means a lot. It makes a big difference when they’ve had the same goal in mind from when they’re 2 to when they’re 4.”
