Article provided courtesy Days of ’47 Cowboy Games and Rodeo – Days of ’47 Cowboy Games and Rodeo photo by Peggy Gander
There isn’t a hotter barrel racer in the land right now than Hailey Kinsel and she continued her torrid run in Salt Lake City on Monday night. Kinsel of Cotulla, Texas, and her great horse DM Sissy Hayday “Sister” stopped the clock in 17.22 seconds. In 2017, the duo won the Gold Medal and $50,000 that propelled her to her first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, where she set an arena record and finished as reserve world champion. Kinsel is coming off a $100,000 win at the Calgary Stampede just over a week ago. Joining her in the finals will be two-time world champion Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi who jockeyed KissKiss BangBang “Mona” to second place finish with a time of 17.37 seconds. It will no doubt be an all out horse race on Tuesday night for the Gold Medal.
A total of 256 competitors have taken their shot at a share of the $1 million in prize money and now the top two from each performance and two wild card competitors will shoot for Gold, Silver or Bronze medal that will be awarded on Tuesday, July 24. The 10 competitors in each event in the Gold Medal Round will compete in a sudden-death format with the winner collecting a Gold Medal and $50,000 cash.
The Komatsu Equipment Days of ’47 Cowboy Games & Rodeo presented by Zions Bank, is taking place at the $17.5 million state-of-the-art Days of ’47 Arena at the Utah State Fairpark, custom designed and built for rodeo. The venue—an outdoor arena located in the heart of Salt Lake City—features over 10,000 stadium-style seats.
For only the fourth time in the history of rodeo, riders will have an opportunity to compete for Gold, Silver or Bronze Medals. The first two times were in conjunction with the Olympic Winter Games in Calgary (1988) and Salt Lake City (2002), when rodeo was part of the Cultural Olympiad and the third being the Days of ’47 Cowboy Games and Rodeo in 2017. The medals that will be awarded at the Days of ’47 Cowboy Games & Rodeo will be produced by OC Tanner, the same company that made the Olympic medals for the champions of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
A limited number of tickets for the final performance are still available at smithstix.com. For more information on the event visit www.daysof47cowboygames.com. The Gold Medal round kicks off at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night, July 24.
For those unable to attend in person all the action can be seen live nightly at 8 p.m. MT on Ridepass.com with a subscription. CBS Sports Network will air a recap of each performance on tape delay with the Final performances on July 25 at 5 pm. MT. CBS will air a highlight show of the Days of ’47 Cowboy Games and Rodeo on July 29 at 11 a.m. MT.
Hailey Kinsel and DM Sissy Hayday. Days of ’47 Cowboy Games and Rodeo photo by Peggy Gander
Barrel racing: 1. Hailey Kinsel, Cotulla, Texas, 17.22 seconds, $3,200; 2. Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi, Victoria, Texas, 17.37, $2,400; 3. Jamie Gee, Bliss, Idaho, 17.54, $1,600; 4. Kali Jo Parker, Wendell, Idaho, 18.08, $800.
Automatically advances to Gold Medal Round: Hailey Kinsel and Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi
Gold Medal Round qualifiers:
Tammy Fischer
Lyndee Moser
Lisa Lockhart
Lisa Thornton
Chani Graves
Sarah Rose McDonald
Hailey Kinsel
Brittany Pozzi Tonozz
Katie Miller
Bobbi Grann
