But a big rally took place during the Thursday evening Feb. 7 show with Kay Blandford, Sutherland Springs, Texas, clocking a 16.44 to move to second in the Semi Finals go round and second in the average with a total on two of 33.13. Blandford, like all others, trails Semi Finals and average leader Natalie Foutch, Eldora, Ia. Kendra Dickson, Aubrey, Texas, also moved into the top 12 on two during Thursday’s evening perf.
Blandford, who has an impressive 12 trips to the Wrangler NFR on her resume, along with a 2007 WPRA World Championship and a 1996 WPRA Reserve World Championship, felt her 11-year-old mare Talents Dark Angel gave it everything she had to post the evening’s fastest time.
“The key to her here is getting her down the alley,” said Blandford. “On my first run she got away from me in the alley. But tonight I was ready for her and was able to get her way down before she broke. I was surprised that when we entered the arena she didn’t instantly see the first barrel, but the minute I touched her she was there and had it turned. We were a little wider than usual going into it but somehow by the time we were on the back side she was lined up perfectly for the second. She couldn’t have turned a better second barrel. That’s where we made up a lot of our time plus she was running hard the entire run.”
Blandford’s successful barrel racing career, that now spans four decades, has deep roots in Fort Worth. It was at the 1975 Fort Worth Invitational Ranch Girl’s Barrel Race (where no professionals could compete) that Blandford, then running under her maiden name of Kay Proctor, got her first taste of competing at a winter Stock Show rodeo riding a big sorrel gelding she called Big John. Immediately after the rodeo she purchased her GRA card (forerunner to the WPRA) and by year’s end found herself among the elite top 15 at her first NFR in Oklahoma City in Dec. of 1975.
After winning Fort Worth in 2011, Blandford returned to the Fort Worth Finals in 2012 but had the misfortune of hitting a barrel. She’s anxious for an opportunity to get it right in 2013 in the Saturday night, Feb. 9, Fort Worth Finals.
25th Performance, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, 2 p.m.
Laura Kennedy 16.74
Kyndal McCown 16.79
Sarah Attea 16.88
Lizzy Ehr 16.92
Marci Jackson 16.99
Lisa Kaul 17.12
Savannah Reeves 17.28
Shelly Anzick 17.89
Mattie Jackson 18.13
Tiany Schuster T.O.
26th Performance, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Kay Blandford 16.44
Jana Bean 16.71
Kendra Dickson 16.76
Gretchen Benbenek 16.81
Holly Cauthen 16.83
Brenda Mays 16.91
Benette Little 16.92
Ashley Mohon 17.10
Britany Fleck 21.66
Rachel Primm 21.89
