News & Notes From The Rodeo Trail - Week of September 19, 2011

Courtesy of PRCA Media


ProRodeoLive.com will broadcast full coverage of the Justin Boots Championships in Omaha, going on the air live at 6:45 p.m. (CT) for each session from Sept. 22-24. Veteran PRCA announcer Steve Kenyon will anchor the webcast. For additional details, visit www.prorodeolive.com ...


There are four changes in the lineup for the Justin Boots Championships with bareback riders Jason Havens and Steven Dent replacing the injured Tilden Hooper and Clint Cannon and bull riders Shawn Hogg and Allen Helmuth taking the spots vacated by Shane Proctor and Clayton Foltyn. Hogg will be competing with an injury to his left leg after being stepped on by a bull at the Justin Boots Playoffs in Puyallup, Wash. Team roper Kaleb Driggers broke a bone in his left leg at Pendleton – just above the ankle – but will also compete in Omaha with partner Justin Wade Davis ...


Blair Vold, a nephew of ProRodeo Hall of Fame stock contractor Harry Vold, escaped unharmed after being kidnapped at gunpoint from his home southwest of Ponoka, Alberta, on Sept. 15. Vold, owner of Vold, Jones and Vold Auction Company, was forced into a truck by a masked gunman and driven to a bank in Lacombe, Alberta, where Vold’s card was used to withdraw an undisclosed amount of cash. Vold got away while the suspect was inside the bank trying to withdraw additional funds, according to Sgt. Tim Taniguchi of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the suspect fled in a silver pick up truck before the Lacombe Police arrived ...


Grant Harris has decided not to extend the Cowtown Rodeo series another week to make up for the date lost to Hurricane Irene last month; the season finale in Woodstown Pilesgrove, N.J., will be Sept. 24 as originally scheduled ...


While in Albuquerque for the New Mexico State Fair Rodeo Sept. 17, Clint, Clif and Tuf Cooper found time to join their uncle (and 2008 World Champion Tie-Down Roper) Stran Smith at the Texas Tech-New Mexico football game to watch their cousin, Sawyer Vest, play defensive back and on special teams for Tech’s 59-13 rout of the Lobos ...


ProRodeoLive.com and Purple Cowboy Wines are giving away a pair of Gold Buckle seats for the Dec. 4 performance of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in a raffle to help 1991 World Champion Clint Corey and his wife, Diana, with the mounting costs of Diana’s cancer treatments. Each raffle ticket is $25 with the winner to receive the two prime tickets with airfare and lodging included. To participate, go to PayPal.com and click on the “Send Money” link. You will be asked for an e-mail address where you want the money directed; type in rodeoprofiles@netzero.com, add your e-mail address in the next box and follow the instructions from there ... 


A crew from MKP Enterprises began the process of demolishing the rodeo arena in Spanish Fork, Utah, Sept. 19 to make way for a bigger facility for the Fiesta Days Rodeo. An anonymous donor recently came forward with the $3 million needed to complete the project. The demolition is expected to take three weeks and MKP will recycle all the metal, wood and concrete from the 66-year-old arena.


QUOTE OF THE WEEK
            “We’ve done pretty well this year, but this is more than kind of cool. This is something you live for. Like they say, when you set a record, they write your name down and it never goes away.”
– Team roper Shane Bessette, talking about tying the arena record of 4.8 seconds at the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up with his 19-year old son, Shawn.