BY BRETT NIERENGARTEN
Brody Cress is familiar with being at the top of the PRCA Saddle Bronc Riding World Standings. This year will be his fifth straight trip to the NFR and in three of his first four appearances, he has finished No. 2 or No. 3 in the final World Standings.
Cress has also won the NFR Average twice, but the Gold Buckle has eluded the 25-year-old so far.
This year, he will enter the NFR in third place in the PRCA Saddle Bronc Riding World Standings after spending a vast majority of the season in the Top 3.
Thanks to rides of 87 and 88 points at the Texas Circuit Finals in early January and another 88 points to finish second at the Rodeo Rapid City Xtreme Broncs Match on Jan. 30, Cress was the only saddle bronc rider other than Cody DeMoss with at least $10,000 by Feb. 1.
CRESS AT RAPID CITY XTREME BRONCS
He won a total of 10 rodeos in 2021, the first coming at the Silver Spurs Rodeo in Kissimmie in February and the biggest being in Calgary in July and Ellensburg in September.
At The Stampede, Cress was 8-for-8 and averaged 85.9 points. In Ellensburg, he was 87.5 on both of his horses and shared the win with Chase Brooks, he totaled $7,597 there, more than any other saddle bronc rider.
BRODY CRESS RIDES FOR 94.5 POINTS IN CALGARY
The Calgary win came right in the middle of a summer that saw Cress winning several mid-sized rodeos.
On June 26, he won West of the Pecos Rodeo (Texas) with an 89-point ride on Get Smart and in the middle of August, he was the top saddle bronc rider at the Mountain Valley Stampede (Utah) and the Lawton Rangers Rodeo (Oklahoma). Those two wins were part of a 10-day stretch in which he won $27,361 on nine bucking horses. Six of those rides were marked 87 points or higher and none were less than 83.
On Aug. 17, Cress was No. 3 in the PRCA World Standings with $122,464. At that point in the season, only he and Stetson and Ryder Wright had earned more than $100,000 in the saddle bronc riding. The fourth place saddle bronc rider, Chase Brooks, had just over $75,000.
Cress would go on to close August with a win at the Golden Spike Rodeo (Utah) with an 89-point ride on Jitter Bug in the Short Round.
CRESS AT THE GOLDEN SPIKE
He finished the year with an average score of 84.19 and 44 rides of 85 or more points. Both of those were career highs. Cress needs to win about $144,000 at the NFR to best his all-time season earnings high of $286,372 in 2017, when he was the Reserve World Champion.