Daily Archives: March 19, 2010

Tie-down roper Fred Whitfield has a fever — and the only prescription is more calves like Thursday’s to rope.

The local legend secured his in a sizzling 7.7 seconds to win Semifinal II and advance to the RodeoHouston Championship round for the first time since the Super Series started in 2007.

“I had that calf in the third round (of Super Series III) and tied him in 8.7 so I knew he was a really good calf,” Whitfield said. “I just wanted to take a safe start and then try to execute in the field, and I love it when a plan comes together.

“I got that calf turned around perfect and when I got to him (made) no mistakes.”

The Cypress native couldn’t afford to in a semi that saw two ropers under 9.0 — which won the first semi — fail to advance. The 7.7 was a tenth of a second off the Houston record.

Whitfield said slower times Wednesday had more to do with bigger, harder-running calves, and even better, he expects his batch to return for the 10-man final. But his semi was solid, too.

Ryan Jarrett, a former all-around world champion, was second at 8.0 and Shane Hanchey, currently No. 2 in the world, was third with an 8.4 and the Super Series earnings tiebreaker.

Trevor Brazile and Cody Ohl, with 17 world and three Houston championships between them, failed to move on. Brazile was 7.3, (read more and photo credit)

Curtis Cassidy won $53,000 at Houston last year and led professional rodeo’s world steer wrestling standings for the next nine months.
That won’t happen this year. He was skunked in the qualifying rounds of the $1.5 million rodeo, the regular-season’s richest stop in the U.S.

But, his younger brother Cody has a chance to duplicate the feat.
The Donalda, Alta., cowboy snuffed a steer in 4.4 seconds in Thursday night’s semifinal to tie for second three ways and advance to Saturday’s championship round.

He earned $650 for his effort and boosted his Houston income to $2,650.
The top four finishers in each of the two-leg semifinals advance to the championship round.

Lindsay Sears, the 2008 world champion from Nanton, will join the younger Cassidy in the final-day showdown. She tied for second in the barrel racing semi=final to earn $875, hiking her total income for the first 17 days of the rodeo to $5,875.

World champion Lee Graves from Calgary broke the barrier to win (read more and photo credit)