Jake Brown Caps Big Week with Omaha Victory
By Tracy Renck
OMAHA, Neb. – Bareback rider Jake Brown wasn’t living on the bubble for qualifying for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo with the PRCA regular season concluding Sept. 30.
The Cleveland, Texas, cowboy was sitting in 12th in the PRCA | RAM World Standings heading to the final weekend of the season.
However, Brown didn’t put things on cruise control ahead of his fifth consecutive trip to the Wrangler NFR in Las Vegas.
Brown won the Omaha (Neb.) River City Rodeo on Saturday with an 86-point ride on The Cervi Brothers’ Good Times.
That capped an impressive weekend for Brown. He also won the American Royal Pro Rodeo in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday night, and finished second at the Pasadena (Texas) Livestock Show & Rodeo on Thursday.
The wins earned him $5,878, while placing in Pasadena earned another $1,457.
“It feels good to get these wins in Omaha and Kansas City,” said Brown, 29. “I felt safe for the Finals going into this weekend, but I knew I had good horses and I had a good chance (to win). I feel like I’ve been riding really good these last couple of months and it has showed. I went from being behind (in the standings) and catching up, and now I’m in a solid position. I finished strong.”
In Omaha, Brown earned $3,955. The Kansas City win for Brown came on his 86.5-point ride on United Pro Rodeo’s Jungle Cat.
“I had never been on Good Times, but I had seen him before, and he was a really nice horse,” Brown said, “He had a lot of timing and let me show off a little bit. I had never been on Jungle Cat either, but I had seen him at a lot of Texas rodeos and to the NFR last year, so I knew him well. He bucked right out of there and tried me and then just got really nice.”
The Wrangler NFR is little more than two months away – Dec. 5-14 – but Brown is happy to end the regular season on a roll.
“This feels awesome,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been riding better than I ever have, and I’m ready to keep rolling.”
Brown finished a career-best eighth in the world standings in 2015.
“Every time you go to Las Vegas it is different, but it is always exciting, it is what you dream about when you’re a kid,” Brown said. “The money we ride for in Las Vegas is life-changing. I’ve never had the Finals I wanted, and I’m looking forward to 2019 being the Finals I want.”
Outside of the excitement of another trip to the Finals, Brown and his wife, Nicole, are thrilled with the pending birth of their first child, a boy, due Dec. 17.
“It is really an exciting time,” Brown said.
Other winners at the $127,902 rodeo were steer wrestler Tyler Pearson (3.5 seconds); team ropers Coy Rahlmann/Ryan Von Ahn (4.2 seconds); saddle bronc rider Brody Cress (86.5 points on Cervi Championship Rodeo’s Forked Up); tie-down roper Cooper Mathews (7.7 seconds); barrel racer Ivy Hurst (14.19 seconds) and bull rider Tyler Hessman (86 points on The Cervi Brothers’ Jack Hammer).
For more coverage on the Omaha (Neb.) River City Rodeo, check out the Oct. 4 edition of ProRodeo Sports News.
Courtesy of PRCA