Jordan Driver and her standout geldings remain undefeated at the 2025 San Diego Rodeo.
Held for the second year at Petco Park, the baseball stadium that’s home to the San Diego Padres in downtown San Diego, California on January 10-12, Jordan Driver smoked the barrel racing aboard both her geldings to collect $31,000.
Held for the second year at Petco Park, the baseball stadium that’s home to the San Diego Padres in downtown San Diego, California on January 10-12, Jordan Driver smoked the barrel racing aboard both her standout geldings to collect $31,000.
Hosted by the Outriders, San Diego Padres and C5 Rodeo, there were 60,000 spectators and fans in the stadium stands each night and after parties held at Gallagher Square with concerts from Elle King, Ryan Bingham and Colter Wall.
“In the stadium our main focus is the Rodeo,” Gillian Grant of C5 Rodeo shared. “Petco Park is America’s number one ballpark, the venue itself is unlike any other. The local tribes and the Charro groups play a very important role in our Rodeo and have been a big player in the San Diego Rodeo Alliance.”
The San Diego Rodeo Alliance aims to support rodeo and keep traditions alive. Although the $700,000 payout to rodeo contestants was important, they also wanted to bring some of the top athletes to share rodeo with the community.
“The San Diego Rodeo Alliance was created last year following the rodeo as there was a proposed rodeo ban by a City Council member,” Grant explained. “The San Diego Rodeo Alliance has worked very hard to educate the community on the support of Rodeo and has made a lot of ground with this.”
Driver Takes It All
Not only did the senior at Tarleton State University win both rounds, the eight-man round and the shootout, but she did it aboard two different horses; 2018 gelding TRHeavensIlluminated (JL Dash Ta Heaven x TR Dashing Badger x Mr Illuminator) and 2017 gelding Judge JB Cash (Judge Cash x Bevs Aa Whiz Kid x Pc Bar Dox Frost)
Starting the event on TRHeavensIlluminated, better known as “Cyrus,” she ran a 16.27 in the large outdoor, beating Sue Smith’s 16.39 that placed second.
“I never took Cyrus in there to practice,” Driver said. “I kind of just ran him cold turkey. He’s really aggressive, it’s kind of all or nothing on him. I really have to remind myself to keep riding and to stay two steps ahead of him because he wants to work so hard. That’s why running in blind was 10 times better because I knew where the barrels were, but he didn’t.”
The gelding was futuritied by Molli Montgomery who rode him to several big wins including the 2022 Old Fort Days Futurity Championship and more than $218,000 in EquiStat reported lifetime earnings. Driver bought him after his futurity year and hit the rodeo trail with hauling partner and 2024 National Finals Rodeo qualifier LaTricia Duke. Driver and Cyrus have won more than $235,000 together in the last two years.
She then ran Cyrus in round two to take the win with a 16.32, but that wasn’t originally her plan. The San Diego Rodeo is structured where you advance to the next round based on money won, which allows the highest earners after rounds one and two to qualify to the eight-man round and then the shootout, which consists of the top four highest earners of the rodeo.
“I wasn’t actually going to run Cyrus in the second round, I was going to run Judge in the second round,” Driver explained. “They told me after the first round that I was pretty much guaranteed to the eight-man round.”
After talking with the production team, they told Driver if she won round two she would be guaranteed a spot in the shootout, putting less pressure on winning money in the eight-man round to advance. Her round two win put her at $7,000 in rodeo earnings, keeping her on top of the leaderboard.
She opted to run Judge in the eight-man round. They, again, won the round with the fastest time of the event, a 16.12 to earn $4,000. Jamie Olson was second with a 16.34.
Driver bought Judge from Quincy Sullivan in June right after the College National Finals Rodeo. After the finals, she picked Judge up and continued on to summer pro rodeos in the west.
“I never really got to stay home and go to some jackpots, had to learn him as we were going out on the road,” she said. “But I knew what he was, (Quincy) ran with us at the college rodeos and ran right there with us, outrun us several times on him.”
Driver said Cyrus and Judge are complete opposites. Judge is her more laid back horse, and she actually ponies Cyrus off of Judge when exercising them. Judge is also a head horse, which is why Sullivan originally bought him. Driver decided to stay on the gray gelding for the shootout.
“I had planned on running Cyrus in the (shootout),” she added. “My mom was actually out in the back with him, saddled, ready to go at the trailer. And so when I ran Judge (in the eight-man round), I really did not expect the run I had, I didn’t think that was going to be his setup but he worked great. And he cooled off great and never had a care in the world. I was like, ‘You know what, I really have nothing to lose here. All I have is to gain.’ So I called my mom, told her to unsaddle Cyrus.”
A unique feature of the San Diego rodeo is the contestant entrance to the stadium. Because of a city ordinance, horses can’t be on San Diego sidewalks, so contestants couldn’t ride their horses into the stadium. The rodeo committee had two trailers to shuttle horses and riders in and out of the field
The shootout round followed the eight-man round on Sunday, so the four barrel racers in the shootout — Jordan Driver, Sue Smith, Halyn Lide and Jamie Olsen — made back-to-back runs.
“Judge was strong, he does get a little stronger if he runs back-to-back, but he’s such a different feel than Cyrus, so I never really know when he’s running or when he’s not, he doesn’t look like he’s running,” she said. “I tell my dad he looks like he’s loping half the time, it’s just deceiving. He has got really confident with me, especially when we went past the first barrel (in the shootout), he never really stood up or quit running so I figured we were still good after the first barrel.”
Driver and Judge ran a 16.31 to win the shootout and $20,000.
“I was so thankful to get the opportunity to do it,” she said. “The ground was awesome the whole time. They tried so hard the whole week to keep the ground together and the production team was awesome, it was very organized the whole time. They had everything planned out, so it was such a fun event and I was super blessed to be able to go out there.”
Not a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association approved rodeo, the San Diego Rodeo is an invite only format. Driver was invited from her World Champions Rodeo Alliance standings.
“I was already planning on going to the West Contender Finals in Las Vegas, but I have two spots in the Central Contender Finals so I figured this was kind of a once in a lifetime bucket-list rodeo,” she said. “So I turned out of Vegas and I went there.”
Starting 2025 with a bang, Driver and Cyrus also won the Lone Star Derby in Stephenville, Texas at the beginning of the year, making Cyrus the first horse to win the Lone Star Shootout Futurity and Derby.
“Ultimately, everyone’s goal is to go to the NFR, but I finally got into the buildings,” Driver said. “I was finally relieved to not have to go to a qualifier to get into the buildings, so I’m up at Denver and then turn around and go to Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. My goals with this first year in the buildings is to make the finals at them, and then whatever happens there. I know a lot of money happens in the winter. I did the summer rodeos, and so I kind of have a game plan there but I’ll be still kind of learning the winter rodeos. I don’t think my horses really care where they go, they’re pretty ready and I think this is kind of the first year I’ve had two seasoned horses and I’m really excited about that.”
San Diego Rodeo Results:
Round One:
1. Jordan Driver, 16.27, $3,500
2. Sue Smith, 16.39, $2,625
tie-3. Carlee Otero, 16.50, $1,312
tie-3. Halyn Lide, 16.50, $1,312
Round Two:
1. Jordan Driver, 16.32, $3,500
2. Kathy Petska, 16.34, $2,625
3. Halyn Lide, 16.40, $1,750
4. Sue Smith, 16.46, $875
Eight Man Round:
1. Jordan Driver, 16.12, $4,000
2. Jamie Olson, 16.34, $3,000
3. Jimmie Smith, 16.53, $2,000
4. Sue Smith, 16.55, $1,000
Shootout Round:
1. Jordan Driver, 16.31 $20,000
2. Sue Smith, 16.39, $10,000
