Schalla and Wright Lead Gold Buckle Race in Unofficial Top 15 Bull Riding Qualifiers

There is a good idea of who will be going to the NFR in the bull riding when December rolls around.

Wacey Schalla/ Nathan Meyer Photography

The National Finals Rodeo is a short two months away and the regular season has finally come to a close. Many miles have been driven, flown, walked, and crawled for this year's qualifiers in every event and especially the bull riding.

Now, the year has officially come to a close; no dollar won from this point on will count towards this year's world standings, but until the audit is conducted, these qualifiers are not technically official.

This year's field that is going contains quite a few who will be new to competing at the Thomas and Mack arena. There are SEVEN cowboys who are rookies to the NFR, led by the No.6 man in the world- Hudson Bolton, as the 19-year-old won nearly $175,000 this year.

Bolton will be joined by Qynn Andersen, Bryce Jensen, Mason Moody, Rawley Johnson, Jesse Petri, and the No.15 man, Luke Mackey.

Mackey fought until the very end, and his check at the Duel at the Dunes solidified his spot over Luke Mast, who is outside looking in at the top 15. Mast missed the cutoff by a mere $3,000 as he came up short at the Dunes in the final hours of the season.

Three cowboys amassed more than $300,000 on the season: Wacey Schalla, Stetson Wright, and Ky Hamilton. It is the young gun, Schalla, who leads the charge going into the NFR.

Schalla vs. Wright this Year

Tom R. Smedes/Special to RGJ, Tom R. Smedes/Special to RGJ

For the majority of the season, the world standings showed a duel in the making. Schalla and Wright swapped punches all year, but now it is Schalla who has a mere $2,000 gap over one of the best in the business.

The bull riding is the best event for both all-around hands as the two are not just at each other's throats for the gold buckle in the bull ridng, but the all-around as well. After an unfortunate injury to Wright in Puyallup, where a bronc horse stepped on him, he was sidelined for the last two weeks of the season. In that time, Schalla made up some ground in both the world title races.

There is now $35,000 that separates the two, with Wright sitting on top, but when the NFR comes around, there will be over $30,000 up for grabs a night and over $85,000 to the average winners. That gap is almost nothing.

Both cowboys qualified in their other events (saddle bronc for Wright and bareback riding for Schalla), so to say this will be a good one to watch is quite the understatement.

With the law of averages, there is a good chance that a new cowboy is crowned the bull riding world champion when the NFR comes to a close. The only two in the top-15 that have won gold buckles are Wright (two) and Hamilton (one), and they both reside in the top three.

It is going to be a fight to the finish with lots of new talent ready to come out of those yellow bucking chutes.

---