What do you get when the top seven callbacks miss for $200,000? Well, you get two very surprised gentlemen in the number eight spot.
Pampa, Texas’ Q.B. Cobb and Booker, Texas’ Trew Cates roped four steers in 35.14 seconds to earn top honors in the #11, but it wasn’t an easy road to the money. They entered the short round in the eighth callback position and sat in the back alley and proceeded to watch all seven teams ahead of them flat miss.
For two young ropers who make their living working in Texas feedlots, $200,000 will go a long way in making life a whole lot easier.
On the team’s third steer, Cates’ 14-year-old sorrel gelding Grasshopper cut the corner, forcing Cates to wait another jump or so to throw his loop. But it was Cobb’s mishaps that really make it a wonder each man took home $100,000.
“The rubber came off my horn on my first and third run. What are the chances of that happening?” Cobb laughed.
Because the idea of winning $100,000 hadn’t really had all day to process for these two like it had for some of the other ropers who came back higher callbacks, neither roper really knew what he’d do with the money.
“I just started thinking about it,” Cates said. “I don’t know. I’ll invest some of it and look at all the options I guess.”
Cobb had a little more of a plan. “I hope to pay off my house and maybe get a few cattle, and maybe by a new saddle.”