DALLAS -- Trevor Brazile couldn't hide his disappointment as he watched his run of three consecutive all-around world championships get roped by rookie Ryan Jarrett at last year's National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center.
"I want to have an exclamation point on my season by the time I get (to the NFR) next year," Brazile said a year ago.
Advertisement
The calf roper and team roper has done just that with the NFR less than three weeks away, despite failing to win any money in this weekend's Texas Stampede ProRodeo Tour Finale at American Airlines Center.
Brazile, who turns 30 on Thursday, has won $266,096 in Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events. That nearly doubles the total earned by his closest pursuer, Joe Beaver, for the prestigious all-around title.
"For me to have a chance to win the world title, Trevor would have to quit, and I don't think he's going to," said Beaver, a fellow roper.
Even though Brazile didn't win any money here, the resident of Decatur, Texas, said the competition helped him tune up for the NFR, which starts Nov. 30. He has been slowed the past two months by what he said was either a groin injury or sports hernia.
"I wanted to come in here and win money, but mainly leave as healthy as I was when I started," Brazile said Saturday.
Brazile won't be competing today when the semifinals and finals take place, but the focus has been there all year to regain his all-around title.
"I'm hungrier now than I was before I won my first one," he said.
Brazile was eliminated from contending for the all-around title on the ninth of 10 days in the 2005 NFR.
Not this year.
He won his first world event title a week ago, taking the steer wrestling championship in Hobbs, N.M.
He's ranked second in calf roping to five-time world titlist Cody Ohl. He's 14th in team roping as a header, which is one spot above the cutoff for the NFR, where the top 15 in the PRCA standings in each of eight categories qualify after today's last day of the regular season.
This year he teamed with seven-time world champion heeler Rich Skelton and put a greater emphasis on how much he competed while downplaying his horse breeding business on his 65-acre ranch about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth, Texas.
"Everything became more calculated this year," Brazile said. "(Not winning) has helped me to become more goal oriented.
