WORTHY WIN Rule Records Arena-Record Time to Win Gooding ProRodeo By Ann Bleiker T he Gooding ProRodeo has a tradition where the “Beer Worthy” section of the crowd offers a
cold drink to some of the top performers throughout each performance. Over the last three years, the rodeo has also been known in the barrel racing world as one that has good ground with the WPRA honoring them for their “Beer Worthy” commitment to providing safe conditions via the Justin Best Footing Award program. The Gooding ProRodeo has won the honor in the Wilderness Circuit four times and has reigned supreme each of past three years; it looks like they will be in contention to win it again in 2023. “Gooding is such a fun rodeo,” Dona Kay Rule wrote on her Facebook page. “Hats off to the committee for their commitment to great ground conditions. It allowed for safe fast runs for our equine athletes.”
Dona Kay Rule and Valor are in a position in the barrel racing world that they have not been in before and that is on the NFR bubble. Rule and Valor are making a hard push for another NFR qualification and the win in Gooding, Idaho, came at a great time as the season draws to a close. Not only did they win the rodeo but set an arena record in the process, smashing the old one. Photo by WT Bruce
strongly for those that were and hoped the best for them, so now I am in that position and you just have to stick your chin down and keep striding forward doing the best you can,” said Rule, who is 65 this year. “With Valor, I have been very blessed with being able to go home whenever I was ready at the end of the season and now, I sit behind the steering wheel and get out and run barrels every once in a while. That is about all I can do for the next few weeks.” Rule has been a student of the game for some time and recalls working for Billy Perrin, the father of 1977 WPRA World Champion Jackie Jo Perrin. Because of that, Rule built a strong foundation early on so when the opportunity with Valor presented itself, she was ready to make the most of it. “Valor was the first full racehorse I had ever had, and he was a handful when I got him from Lana Merrick as a 4-year-old,” said Rule. “Mentally he had a very busy mind. He has been such a blessing for our family.” Rule is now hoping the three-time WPRA Horse With the Most Heart will carry her to a fifth NFR qualification. Anyone can bet that Rule and Valor will give it their all.
And fast runs they were, with Rule setting a new arena record to capture a much-needed win as she rides the infamous bubble in search of her fifth Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualification. In 2021, Ivy Saebens set the arena record in a time of 16.89 seconds. In 2022, Michelle Darling turned in a run a tick faster in a time of 16.88, but Rule and her two-time horse of the year, High Valor, smashed the record this year with a 16.76-second run. “Coming off a long spell of not as good as it could be due to a fall (at Calgary Stampede), I finally got him going good and knew the ground would be good at Gooding, so we just turned him loose and he showed us what he could do,” said Rule. It was beyond good. LaTricia Duke matched Darling’s 16.88-second run and finished fifth. Three other jockeys – Ashley Castleberry (16.79), Sue Smith (.84) and Nicole Driggers (.87) – were faster than the previous arena record. With the win, Rule added $5,195 to her 2023 earnings, and as of Aug. 21, she was 18th in the world standings with $76,366. At the time, she was less than $6,000 from the all-important 15th spot to secure her bid for another NFR with a little more than a month left in the regular season. “I have never been on the bubble before and always felt pretty
20 WPRA NEWS SEPTEMBER 2023
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