Important Weekend for McLeod and Chappel

Winning two rodeos in a weekend can be a game changer.

And when it comes at a critical time of the year, and the two rodeos are both SMS Equipment Pro Tour events, the significance of the double victories is that much greater.

Enter team ropers Tee McLeod and Brady Chappel. The Saskatchewan hands finished off a critical week by taking top honours at both the Strathmore Stampede (5.0 seconds – $4779) and the Regina Pile O Bones event (4.0 seconds – $2453). The wins came on the heels of a 2/3 split at the High Prairie Elks Pro Rodeo a few days earlier that gave the pair another $954 for a total week’s haul of $8186 and a huge boost in the Canadian standings as well as the Tour standings. Both men will be in the top twelve with McLeod a little higher—likely in at least a top ten spot.

“Tee will be in pretty solid shape after this weekend, but I’ve still got some work to do,” Chappel, the team’s heeler, acknowledged.

The two had only recently reunited after qualifying for the Canadian Finals in 2021 but having roped with different partners since that time until just a couple of weeks ago. “We got back together for the Medicine Hat/Rockyford/Bruce weekend and the plan was to finish out the year and see if we could maybe do some good.”

Looks like the plan is working very well. The duo placed at Bruce Stampede to set the stage for this weekend’s heroics. Of their Strathmore run, Chappel said, “We knew the steer. Taylor Wudrich and Clint Schreiner had that steer in slack and they made a good run on him (finishing 8^th overall). We were able to use him for what he was and it felt great to get the win. At this time of year with these committees doing such a great job and putting up this kind of money, yeah, this was huge for us.”

Chappel and his wife Brenna, kids, Vanden and Kixton and mom Heather, run an indoor team roping facility just west of Moose Jaw, Sask. Tee McLeod is the youngest member of the trio of team roping brothers from Waldeck, Sask. The pair had made a quick trip to the North Peace Stampede in Grimshaw, Alta (after slack at Regina) on Scott Pimm’s aircraft then flew back to Strathmore. “You don’t mind that kind of travel if you can get set up for Monday in Strathmore. The bigger the rodeo, the later you want to be in the draw; it’s just so important with the steers and with the talent we have roping in Canada that any advantage you can get is huge.”

Regina provided a welcome edge as well as the Pile O Bones Pro Rodeo takes place in the Brandt Centre that was a longtime home for the Canadian Cowboys Association (CCA) Finals and familiar territory for both Chappel and McLeod. The newly-minted duo will next head north to La Crete for the Field of Dreams Rodeo.

“La Crete is awesome,” noted Chappel. “The committee up there rolls out the welcome mat for all of us and we love going there.”

The Saskatchewan ropers weren’t the only ones enjoying big-time success on the long weekend. 2019 Canadian Champion bull rider, Edgar Durazo put on a show of his own, topping the field at Strathmore with an 89.5 point ride aboard Vold Rodeo’s 846 Wild Time for a $5843 payday. The popular Mexican-born athlete finished second to Jordan Hansen at the Queen City Ex. in Regina on C5 Rodeo’s Holly Hand Grenade for $2248 and pocketed $597 for a fourth place finish at the long standing High Prairie Elks Pro Rodeo—a profitable $8688 take home payday that will move Durazo closer to punching his ticket to another November appearance at Red Deer’s Peavey Mart Centrium.

And another Canadian titleist, bareback rider Clint Laye was in a groove as well. The 2021 Champion brought his game to Strathmore for a matchup with Vold Rodeo’s T1 Dancing Queen. The result was 87.75 points and a first-place cheque for $5685. Combined with a 1/2 split (with Dantan Bertsch) at High Prairie on Duane Kesler Championship Rodeo’s G7 Little Rotten for $1148 and a fourth place $1160 out of Regina, Laye cashed out at $7993 for the week that could see him as high as 4^th when the new standings come out later in the week.

See rodeocanada.com for complete unofficial results.

CPRA athletes make the trek north today for two days of action at the award-winning Field of Dreams Stampede in La Crete, Alta then compete at another SMS Equipment Pro Tour stop at the Dawson Creek (BC) Stampede Aug 12-13 as well as the Rimbey (Alta) Rodeo Aug 11-12. Both La Crete and Rimbey are part of the Maple Leaf Circuit.