Dallas Uses a Little Luck to Earn Season-Altering Win at Tibbs Xtreme Bronc Match

The longer the process went, the more Zachary Dallas looked on in disbelief.

After winning the first round of the Casey Tibbs Match of Champions Xtreme Broncs event in Fort Pierre, S.D., on Saturday, the rookie saddle bronc rider found himself in a somewhat tough spot. Horse and rider matchups for the finals are decided by drawing poker chips to determine pairings. Because of his win in the opening round, Dallas was the last competitor to draw.

Among the eight horses available in the finals was Korkow Rodeos’ Joker Poker, an animal known for its ability to produce high scores. In fact, Dallas had first-hand knowledge of Joker Poker’s potential, as he posted one of his personal best all-time outings in Deadwood, S.D., last year on the horse.

The likelihood of the two meeting again seemed downright impossible. Yet as the chips were pulled, the name never came up.

“They kept picking horses and it got to the last four and I was like, ‘Well, there’s a 25 percent chance Joker Poker will be there.’ And then it was a 50 percent chance. And then I ended up being the last guy, and I got it,” Dallas said. “I was a little nervous, but it ended up working out and got her rode.”

Skill certainly matters for rodeo competitors, but a little luck never hurts.

The unlikely matchup between Dallas and Joker Poker, which resulted in an 89-point ride, capped a monster weekend for the Las Cruces, N.M., native, one that has the potential to reshape his season moving forward.

Coming into the event, Dallas was sitting 32nd in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world standings, but after earning $10,065 for his two winning rides at the Tibbs Xtreme Broncs match, he vaulted into the top 20 with more than $36,000 in earnings.

Getting to this point was anything but easy. Dallas and some of his teammates from the New Mexico State University rodeo team left Las Cruces and drove 28 hours to Alberta, Canada, for the Leduc Black Gold Rodeo on Thursday. From there, each competitor had a decision to make – stay in Canada and compete at the Grand Prairie Stompede in Alberta or go back across the border to South Dakota for the Tibbs Xtreme Bronc event.

“My buddy group, we got doubled up in Grand Prairie, Alberta and Fort Pierre. They drew better horses, they thought, over there, and I drew better horses, I thought, over here,” Dallas said. “So I hopped in with Layton Green and Lucas Macza and we drove 16 hours straight through today and got here.”

The long drive south proved to be the right decision as Dallas rode Harper & Morgan Rodeo Co’s Carolina Blue for 88 points in the opening round to secure more than $5,600. His 89-point effort against Joker Poker yielded a little more than $5,000.

And Dallas has no intentions of slowing down. Following his win in South Dakota, he was headed back to the Southwest for a ride in Window Rock, Ariz., before coming back to Canada for more rodeos later this week. He’ll be in Casper, Wyo., later this month to wrap up his collegiate career with New Mexico State at the College National Finals Rodeo. Dallas helped the Aggies win the Grand Canyon Region title as a team while also securing the region saddle bronc championship.

And once the college season is over, it’ll be all PRCA events all summer as the rookie works to put himself in position to be a Resistol Rookie of the Year contender and qualify for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo on his first try.

The path to get there is going to mean a lot more hours on the road and, hopefully, some more lucky matchups, all of which Dallas is ready for.

“We’re just getting started,” he said with a laugh.