It's The Red Bluff Round-Up

Rodeo pros head to Red Bluff Round-Up

World champ Trevor Brazile will compete

• By Jeffrey Jen
• 
  

The Red Bluff Round-Up has been around a long time.

When the Red Bluff Round-Up gets going Friday at the Tehama District Fair grounds, it will be the 90th such edition of what has become one of the richest pro rodeos in the nation.

There will be periods for slack which start at 8 a.m. today for barrel racing. There will also be slack on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

However, the core of the rodeo remains the trio of rodeo performances set for 7 p.m. Friday and 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

That is when the top pro rodeo competitors show up and, according to rodeo president Dave Ramelli, the usual suspects will be there.

The list would include 14-time world champion Trevor Brazile, who added his first career team roping world title to his three tie-down roping and eight all-around crowns in 2010. Brazile also had two world steer roping titles.

Others expected in Red Bluff this weekend include world bareback riding champions Bobby Mote and Will Lowe, world champion steer wrestlers Dean Gorsuch and Luke Branquinho, and two-time world saddle bronc champion Cody Wright.

Then there are some local standouts including a pair of Cottonwood residents in team roping heeler Justin Davis and barrel racer Nellie Williams. Davis qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in 2009 and is 27th in the 2011 standings at the moment. Williams qualified for the NFR last year, though she is off to a slow start in 2011.

In addition to the big names and the other entertaining events such as horse racing, the always popular Wild Ride and wild horse rides.

The rodeo committee is prepared to do something special for those that attend the rodeo performances, especially in terms of the opening ceremonies.

"We're going to have a very special opening for all the performances to honor the 90th anniversary of the rodeo," rodeo president Dave Ramelli said.

Due to its large monetary purse (an estimated $240,000 in total prize money this year), Red Bluff's rodeo always seems to draw some of the best rodeo competitors around.

This year should be no different as eight of the top 11 bull riders in the world standings, including current No. 1 Shawn Proctor, are scheduled to arrive in town.

"We are usually in the top 25 of all the rodeos when it comes to total purse money," Ramelli said.

Wright leads the world saddle bronc standings in 2011, but he should be joined in Red Bluff by all the other riders in the top 15 of the world standings this year, including Cody and Heath DeMoss, Jesse Bail, Sam Spreadbrough and Bradley Harter.

Thirteen of the top 15 bareback riders are on the contestant list, led by Mote, Lowe and world No. 1 Tilden Hooper.

Clint Cooper is atop the world tie-down standings and he, Brazile and former world all-around champion Ryan Jarrett should headline that event in Red Bluff.

Branquinho leads the steer wrestling standings, but the next two in line (Billy Bugenig and Sean Mulligan) should also be in Red Bluff.

World champion heeler Patrick Smith is in the team roping competition in Red Bluff along with this year's top team of Chad Masters and Jade Corkill along with Clay Tryan and Travis Graves.

Another draw is Red Bluff's place on the Wrangler Pro Tour as one of the Silver rodeos. It is one of only four California rodeos that are on the tour with other three being Clovis, Redding (next month) and Salinas.

The setup remains the same from a year ago in how the scoring goes. The roughstock events get one round to get the highest score and all of the competitors will be in the performances. The timed events have slack and the top 12 from the first round get to ride their second round in that evening's performance. In their cases, the best average or aggregate wins.

Ramelli said that Wayne Brooks and Bob Tallman are back to announce while Ash Cooper is the barrel man. Red Bluff natives Joe Baumgartner and Eric Layton are the bull fighters with the "One-Armed Bandit" John Payne as the entertainment.

To purchase tickets, call 527-100 or go online to www.redbluffroundup.com.

As of Wednesday evening, some areas had already been sold out. Ticket prices for the Friday performance are $13 for grandstand reserved, arena and racetrack seats and $26 for grandstand box seats. As usual, Saturday grandstand and south arena seats are already gone, but north and east arena seats ($19) and racetrack seats ($17) were still available. Sunday's main grandstand box seats are sold out, but arena ($19), reserved grandstand ($21) and racetrack seats ($17) are still available. Handicap seating is $26 and remains available for all three performances.