Stars to Shine at Bay City Rodeo
BAY CITY, Texas – The stars come out brightly at the Matagorda County Fair and Rodeo.
The annual event – set for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 3-Saturday, March 5, at the Matagorda County Fairgrounds – will be a combination of rising stars and established veterans all competing top dollar and a big championship in this south Texas community.
A big reason why is because of Pete Carr’s Classic Pro Rodeo, which produces the annual event.
“With Pete Carr, we know we’ve got some of the best stock coming in to our rodeo,” said Daniel Tucker, chairman of the fair’s rodeo committee. “We’ve got a great representation from the NFR cowboys, and a lot of the stock that is at our rodeo has been to the NFR. I’m sure the top stock is a very big reason why we get some of the best cowboys to our rodeo.”
The Carr firm is the largest stock contracting company in ProRodeo and has been nominated for Stock Contractor of the Year for each of the past three years. No other stock contractor in the PRCA has had more animals at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in that same time frame.
Each year, those animals are a drawing card for the biggest names in the game. Last year’s field included numerous world champions and even more NFR qualifiers. Only the top cowboys and cowgirls in the game each year advance to ProRodeo’s grand finale.
“We get a good crowd at our rodeo, and they know they’ll get a top-rate show,” Tucker said.
That show is a reflection of the hard work of the local rodeo committee that works on behalf of the fair and rodeo. For Tucker and his crew of volunteers, the goal is to entertain a crowd of thousands each of the three performances.
“We also have slack night on Wednesday night, and people can come in and watch that with just a gate admission to the fair,” Tucker said. “We have specific tickets to the rodeo performances (Thursday-Saturday), but you get into the fair with a rodeo ticket.”
In addition, there are several unique events that add a local flavor to the ProRodeo, including mutton busting, a calf scramble, junior steer saddling and wild cow saddling.
“Those events are a hit with our local crowd, and they’re always a big deal for us,” he said.
The local rodeo is a powerful mixture of world-class competition and family-friendly entertainment, and organizers lean on the Pete Carr crew to handle the top-flight production that helps blend it all together.
“I think they bring a real class act,” Tucker said of the Carr team. “They are very professional, extremely friendly and nice to work with. They go out of their way to put on a good performance and a great show. Pete wants to make sure everything works and is successful. It sure makes it a lot easier on me as the rodeo chairman.
“I can’t say enough about the crew. We get a lot of people from outside of the county that come to our rodeo, and they really like it. There’s not a bad seat in the house.”
That makes it the perfect venue for an amazing rodeo.
Courtesy of Pete Carr Pro Rodeo