Kaycee Feild Wins the American for Second Time in Three Years
ARLINGTON, Texas – History repeated itself Sunday, and it couldn’t have gone any better for bareback rider Kaycee Feild.
For the second time in three years, Feild rode C5 Rodeo’s Virgil to a victory at RFD-TV’s The American.
Feild’s latest win came with a rodeo-record ride of 93 points aboard Virgil in the four-man Shoot-Out at AT&T Stadium.
“That horse is good, and I knew I had to keep my head and my chin down and keep gassing it,” Feild said. “Tim (O’Connell), Clayton (Biglow) and Tony (Barrington), those guys are great competitors and beating them feels pretty good.”
Orin Larsen had the rodeo record with a 91-point ride on Pickett Rodeo’s Top Notch in the Shoot-Out last year.
Feild, a four-time PRCA world champion (2011-14), earned $100,000 for his win Sunday. He earned $433,333 when he won The American in 2018 with a 90.75-point ride on Virgil in the Shoot-Out.
Of the $100,000 Sunday, $50,000 counted toward the PRCA | RAM World Standings.
Virgil was the 2017 and 2018 PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year, and he lived up to his reputation again.
“That horse is amazing,” Feild said. “He’s big and strong and it is different every time. Sometimes he comes around close and sometimes he goes straight and hops, and today he came around left and he meant business. The harder I spurred him, the harder he bucked. It was a lot of fun. That was probably the most memorable ride I have ever had in my career. I could hear his feet hitting the ground. I could hear my spurs hitting his neck. That was a good feeling. Then, getting off and hearing that crowd was a special moment for me.”
Feild, of Genola, Utah, edged reigning PRCA world champion Clayton Biglow, who had a 91.75-point ride in the Shoot-Out. Feild advanced from the eight-man semifinals with 174.50 points on two head.
Feild wasn’t even in the top 50 in the world standings before The American, and now he will rocket up the standings.
“This is going to allow me to rodeo smarter,” Feild said. “I’m 33, and in the bareback riding that’s pretty old. I don’t want to be one of those guys who goes until he’s 40, but at the same time I have big goals I want to accomplish. I have big things I want to do in this sport, and this helps a lot. This helps me chase down a world title. I’m going to (RodeoHouston) after this, and then I’m going to go home, take care of my body and get ready for the summer and hit the rodeo trail really hard, harder than I did last year. I want to do this and win a world title and hang my hat up on top.”
Feild, the son of the late ProRodeo Hall of Famer Lewis Feild, is thrilled about the present state of ProRodeo.
“Rodeo just used to be kind of a hobby for the tough rancher, the tough farmer,” Feild said. “See if you can ride that horse and go win some money on the weekend, and that might be pretty good. Now, it is a career path, and the sport is getting better. The past three years in the sport of rodeo have been better than my whole career, and it is only getting better and better, and there are more opportunities.”
Other winners at The American were steer wrestler Matt Reeves (4.05 seconds); team ropers Luke Brown/Joseph Harrison (4.30 seconds); saddle bronc rider Wyatt Casper (91.25 points on Northcott Macza’s Get Smart); tie-down roper Shad Mayfield (7.75 seconds); breakaway roper Kaycee Hollingback (2.17 seconds); barrel racer Stevi Hillman (15.405 seconds); and co-champion bull riders Sage Kimzey and Joao Ricardo Vieira. There were no qualified rides by bull riders in the four-man Shoot-Out.
Courtesy of PRCA