A phrase you’re going to hear a lot heading into the Wrangler NFR - “trying to become the first since Charmayne,” Hailey Kinsel is looking for her fourth consecutive World Title and would be the first cowgirl to do it since Charmayne James and Scamper.
Kinsel enters the NFR No. 1 in the WPRA Barrel Racing World Standings and will look to repeat last year’s performance when she broke her own record NFR earnings record with $270,615 over 10 days and won the RAM Top Gun Award.
Looking in the rearview mirror, Kinsel will see No. 2 Jordon Briggs ($102,618), No. 3 Shelley Morgan ($94,229) and No. 4 Dona Kay Rule ($84,990).
Briggs climbed to her second-place spot all the way from No. 7 at the beginning of August. She won almost half of her money this season in August and September.
Shelley Morgan spent the early summer months at No. 1 before being overtaken by Kinsel. Morgan won the Ram National Circuit Finals in April and she is heading to her third NFR.
Fourth-place Dona Kay Rule is returning to the NFR for the second time, but this is technically her third qualification as she was held out due to COVID-19 last year. Rule, who made her NFR debut at age 61 in 2019, won nine rodeos in 2021.
Other notable NFR qualifiers include Nellie Miller ($75,519), who jumped from the bubble all the way to No. 8 after winning the ProRodeo Tour Finale and the return of Ivy Saebens ($70,806), who missed last year’s NFR in part because of health issues to her main mount, JLo, who is now healthy.
Additionally, Lisa Lockhart ($65,044) made a frantic push to qualify for her 14th straight NFR, she is in the 14th spot after entering the season’s final month No. 20.
