By Brian Argabright and Joel Langton
The 830 Times
After winning seven PRCA world championships, millions of dollars at hundreds of rodeos and posting a hall of fame resume, the one thing that always seemed to elude Sage Steele Kimzey was a win at one of the most legendary bull riding events in the world.
That all ended Saturday night on the hallowed dirt of the arena at the Val Verde County Fairgrounds as Steele outlasted 79 other riders to claim his first ever George Paul Memorial Bull Riding title.
On the last ride of the night, Kimzey rode Rafter G’s bull Freddy Fender into the record books with an 88-point ride.
Twenty-five minutes earlier, he’d ridden Megalomaniac into a slot in the championship round with a score of 90.5.
However, Kimzey said he knew the odds were in his favor when he saw that he’d drawn Megalomaniac.
“When I saw the bull I’d drawn, I knew this was going to be the best chance I’d ever had here,” Kimzey said. “I was expecting a win.”
To get the win, he had to punt Park City, Florida’s Cullen Telfer out of the top spot.
Telfer was the first rider to go eight seconds in the final round and at one point, he had Stetson Wright, also with seven championships and Kimzey, the last rider of the night, sitting between him and a gold buckle.
However, Telfer said he wasn’t optimistic. “I was expecting one of them to have a great ride,” he said. “For me, the fun is riding the bulls and the buckle is just a nice plus..”
Telfer, 23-years-old and just starting his climb up the bull riding rankings, got his fun but he didn’t get a buckle, just a second-place check and a few more points in the standings that should move him up from his 20th spot.
For Kimzey, it wasn’t quite a dream come true, but it was special.
“First off, there’s nothing like a Saturday night crowd in Del Rio,” Kimzey said to the adoring crowd.
Kimzey told announcer Anthony Lucia that he was tired of him reminding everyone he hadn’t won a GPMBR event. “I absolutely hated it when you had to remind everyone it was missing from my resume.”
Kimzey said the George Paul buckle would always have a special spot in his buckle case.
“All of my wins are special for their own reasons,” he said. “But there are some great names on the list of past champions of George Paul. It means a lot to have my name on that list now.”
Rounding out the top three was Canadian Jake Gardner.
Gardner was the 45th Annual George Paul Memorial Bull Riding leader after Friday night’s performance as he was the only cowboy to cover both his bulls.
Gardner, who calls Ft. St. John, British Columbia home, rode 4L Diamond S Rodeo’s Easy Street for 75 points in the long go to earn a spot in Friday night’s short go. His score was the lowest of the five qualified rides of the long go, but it gave the Canadian cowboy a chance for a bigger ride.
“Last year I came here and had a good bull and I put too much pressure on myself and bucked off of him. My goal this year was just to have fun, enjoy the bull riding because it’s so great, just try hard and let everything do the rest. So I just focused on riding my bulls on jump at a time and I drew a great one in the short round and capitalized and things went great,” Gardner said Friday night.
Gardner was the sixth man to ride in the short go and drew Stockyards Rodeos’ Just Another Gangster. He took control and posted an 87-point ride, giving him a total of 162 points on two bulls.
None of the four riders who followed, including 2019 George Paul champion Trevor Reiste, could duplicate Gardner’s effort, leaving him the day-one leader.
“When it gets in that situation I kind of just blank out. I focus on what I have in front of me and try and block out all the other stuff. I knew what I had to do in front of me and did my job properly and it worked out good for me and I’m grateful for that,” Gardner said.
Gardner wouldn’t be around to see if anyone could challenge him Saturday. He left Del Rio Friday night for San Antonio to catch a plane back to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to compete in a pair of Canadian pro rodeos this weekend.
According to www.prorodeo.com, Kimzey walked away with $17,192 for the night’s work.
The win catapulted Kimzey from 17th to 6th in PRCA rankings, while Telfer climbed seven spots to 13th.
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Contact the authors at drnhsports@gmail.com and joelalangton@gmail.com
