BY BRETT NIERENGARTEN
After three straight Top 10 finishes in the PRCA Saddle Bronc Riding World Standings, Chase Brooks enters his fourth NFR in a row No. 7 in the world with $97,388. In each of the previous three years, Brooks has made more than $150,000 riding broncs.
The most Brooks has ever earned in a season is $194,681 in 2019. He finished eighth that year, but rode just 69 percent of his broncs. Over the last two years, that has jumped dramatically. Brooks rode 86 percent of his broncs in 2020 and followed it up by covering career-high 88 percent in 2021. He had 90 qualified rides this year, which was 21 more than his previous career-high set in 2020.
Brooks was in good form from the get-go in 2021. He started the year by riding his first 10 broncs for an average score of 84.5 points and picked up a win at the Montana Circuit Finals, a second-place finish Rapid City and more than $10,000 in San Antonio along the way.
BROOKS RIDES FOR 89 POINTS IN RAPID CITY
He kept that momentum going into March where he finished second at the Southeastern Livestock Rodeo (Alabama) and the Osage Xtreme Broncs (Oklahoma) in addition to winning the High Desert Stampede. All of those rodeos were between March 18-27 and Brooks won more than $9,000 for those three rides.
In the summer run, Brooks placed second at two Cowboy Christmas rodeos - the Livingston Roundup (Montana) and the Black Hills Roundup. He earned $3,700 for both of those performances, but his most profitable non-win came a few weeks later in Cheyenne. Brooks was 3-for-3 at the Daddy and rode both of his last two broncs for 87.5 points to win $11,578 total.
As for rodeo wins?
Brooks had plenty. In addition to the High Desert Stampede and the Montana Circuit Finals, he also won the Bucking Battle in Bismark, the Bearpaw Roundup (Montana) the Douglas County Fair and Rodeo (Colorado) and the Pascoe County Fair Rodeo (Florida).
Most impressively, though, Brooks shared the top spot in Ellensburg with a two-head total of 175 points. He was 89 points on Stampede Warrior in the Finals and secured more than $5,500 at the event.
Brooks has now won a total of 40 rodeos over the last four seasons.
BROOKS IN ELLENSBURG
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