Last Saturday 2X World Champion Tim O’Connell made history last Saturday as the first bareback rider to ever win the San Angelo Cinch Chute-Out twice — and he did it two years in a row.
O’Connell not only first won the event in 2020, he tied the world record high score with a 94-point ride on the great Stevie Knicks of Northcott Macza.
For the 2021 finals, he was matched with an equally elite NFR horse, Pete Carr Pro Rodeo’s Uncapped, who he rode for 89.5 points and his second Cinch Chute Out Championship title.
“That wasn’t the ride that I wanted to put on, but I had the horse power underneath me to get the win tonight, I know that,” O’Connell said following his winning ride. “He’s big, he’s strong, he bucks. I’ve been on that horse three times now and that was by far the toughest he’s ever been. He got really vertical with me. I thought he was going to try to throw me off about the fourth jump and I knew I had to keep going and fight back.”
O’Connell is hungry for another world title, after losing out in 2020 to reigning (and now 5X) World Champion Kaycee Feild by less than $7,000, and he says he has his head in the game. “I’ve been really working with some people who have really improved my mental game. I’m not going to lie, after the NFR in 2020, it was really tough for me for a month or so, so to get my mental game back — I know my physical game is there but your mental game is so important in this sport. And I feel on right now.”
TIM O’CONNELL V. UNCAPPED
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