NFR Predictions: Bareback Riding

Most years, in most events, the money gets spread around to all the contestants and with somewhere north of $750,000 paid in each event, there’s plenty to go around. Last year, in the bareback riding, four men earned over $85,000, one earned over $50,000 and the rest were under $40,000.

This year, three of those top four from last year—Bobby Mote, Kaycee Feild and Will Lowe–are the top three in the world standings. J.R. Vezain is sixth.

Those three will again dominate in 2013 and any one of them could end up with the gold buckle. Feild, of course, has won the last two, is young and strong. Mote’s longtime goal has been to match Joe Alexander and Bruce Ford’s mark of five world bareback riding titles (he’s at four now), and Will Lowe, who has three himself, is coming off a dominating performance at the Justin Boots Championships in Omaha, Neb.

“I’m going to take Bobby Mote this year,” said Butch Knowles, the color analyst for Great American Country’s television coverage of the NFR and NFR saddle bronc riding average winner said. “He rode real strong this fall and I think he’s as healthy as he’s been going into there. I think I’m going to stick with Bobby.”