NFR ROUNDUP

EVENT RECAP

• BAREBACK RIDING -- If you know Justin McDaniel and can't keep a secret, skip this story and head to the comics page.

Don't tell him that he has nearly caught Bobby Mote for the lead in the bareback riding world championship race.

McDaniel isn't superstitious, he's just in a groove regardless of which bucking horse he hops on. The 21-year-old from Porum, Okla., drew a great one Wednesday and didn't blow the opportunity he had with Kesler Rodeo's Street Dance.

The horse led and McDaniel followed perfectly to score 89.5 points to win the seventh go-round before 17,183 in the 10-day National Finals Rodeo at Thomas & Mack Center.

"Shoot. That horse is awesome," he said after winning his second go-round in his first Finals.

With Mote, the 2002 world champion, placing out of the money for the fifth time and McDaniel winning $16,394 in the go-round, the rookie pulled to within $21,000 of Mote.

McDaniel is tied with two-time reigning champ Will Lowe for the event aggregate lead, which will pay the NFR title winner a $42,023 bonus. Bonus money goes to the top eight, and Mote is well back in 12th.

• ALL AROUND -- Trevor Brazile took a big step toward successfully defending his all-around world title and winning it for the fifth time in six years when he won calf roping to push his season earnings record total to $361,301.

That gives him a $176,000 lead over Colorado's Josh Peek, who didn't place in the money in either steer wrestling or calf roping. The most Peek can win in the final three go-rounds is $182,450.

• STEER WRESTLING -- Stockton Graves of Newkirk, Okla., turfed his steer in 3.7 seconds to win the go-round, and Canadian Lee Graves tied for second to hold his lead in the world standings.

Graves moved from outside the top five to second place in world money and third in the event standings.

• TEAM ROPING -- Texans David Key of Caldwell and Kory Koontz of Sudan tied their steer in 4.1 seconds to win their first go-round of the Finals.

The three top teams in world money failed to earn checks, which leaves Chad Masters first among headers and Walt Woodard leading the heelers.

• SADDLE BRONC RIDING -- Taos Muncy scored 87.5 on Mosbrucker Rodeo's Silver Moon to win his second Finals go-round and move to second in the world standings. Cody Wright of Milford, Utah, placed second to earn $12,956 to hold the championship lead.

Muncy is within $16,800 of Wright, but Muncy is second in lucrative event standings with six horses covered. Wright is eighth and has completed only four rides.

• CALF ROPING -- Brazile's winning time of 6.7 seconds was the best of the Finals and two-tenths of a second off the record set by Cody Ohl in 2003.

Brazile retook the world money lead from Houston Hutto of Del Rio, Texas. Hutto tied for sixth in the round.

Brazile has won the past two steer roping world championships but never has won the top prize in calf roping.

• BARREL RACING -- Lindsay Sears won her third go-round and placed in the top three for the fifth time to inch closer to money leader Brittany Pozzi-Phar, who won $9,783 by placing third.

Sears trails Pozzi-Phar by $21,000 in world money, but Pozzi-Phar leads her by 4.3 seconds in event aggregate standings. Sears' winning time of 13.64 tied for the Finals' best run.

• BULL RIDING -- Rookie Logan Knibbe of Rockdale, Texas, covered his first bull of the event in style by scoring 91.5 points on Flying U Rodeo's Big Mike to win the go-round.

Kanin Assay, another rookie, placed fifth to earn $4,230 and chipped into the lead of Wisconsin's B.J. Schumacher, who was bucked off.

JEFF WOLF/REVIEW-JOURNAL