GREAT LAKES CIRCUIT: BARRELS Four-Check Finals for Rory Winkelman and Fairway Ta Fame Win Average at Great Lakes Circuit Finals Rodeo
By Tim Gentry S ara Winkelman’s first trip to the RAM Great Lakes Circuit Finals Rodeo (CFR) in Louisville, Kentucky, happened last year, but a big piece of her heart stayed home in a stall in Big Lake, Minnesota. Fairway Ta Fame (Streaking Ta Fame x Perks Alive) was the horse who earned her the berth, but he came up lame out of nowhere in mid-August of 2021. Her bittersweet CFR debut came aboard a borrowed horse and they made the long drive home from Louisville without a single check to show for it. Fast forward to this year and after nearly ten months of hope and rehabilitation, it was time to see if Rory’s recovery was complete. He looked and felt sound, but was his body ready to give as much as the hard-turning seven-year-old always wanted to when they flew into the arena. The American Royal Rodeo in Kansas City, MO, in May would give her the answer she was looking for. “He placed there,” she said with obvious pride, “so it was just a really emotional run there in Kansas City because he’s back and still able to come back, first run back, and place. It was just kind of unbelievable, really, for me, what he could do. He’s just kind of been a rock star ever since.” The story of Winkelman and Rory is already touched with tragedy. Perks Alive was her barrel horse when she lived in Oklahoma, but when knee troubles ended her rodeo career, Winkelman made a last minute decision to breed her, thanks to some help from Streaking Ta
qualified for a return to the Great Lakes CFR in Louisville, very much within striking distance of the year-end championship. Winkelman said she went in expecting him to do well, but knowing his tendency to tip barrels was what could cost them. “I was just tickled at the Circuit Finals this year, to be able to get around the barrels nine times,” said Winkelman. “Somebody asked, ‘What’d you do different?’ I don’t know. I did focus on riding him all the way up in there. You know, hustle, and I was able to get him by. “So I thought, well, if that was the case, why wasn’t I doing that all year long? Have I just been sitting there or what,” she said with laughter that was only slightly chagrinned. Three clean runs, each faster than the last, earned them checks in all three goes on their way to a razor-thin win in the average and an event total of $6,966. Their 46.38 total on three was only four hundredths of a second faster than second place Austyn Tobey, Bemidji, Minnesota, who also won the first and second goes for $7,256 and CFR barrel racing high money honors to jump to fifth in the year-end. Kricket Gintner, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, repeated as year-end circuit champion and will once again represent the Great Lakes Circuit alongside Winkelman at the NFR Open in Colorado Springs, Colorado next July. The lone CFR check ($1,711) for Gintner won in round one for second place made all the difference as she edged rookie phenom Katie Chism, Tiskilwa, Illinois, by less than $200 in the final standings. Chism’s 15.10 in round three was the quick time of the event by almost two tenths of a second. For Winkelman, balancing her full-time career as a speech language pathologist with being mother of two to son Kasen, five, and daughter Sara Winkelman and Fairway Ta Fame was the duo to beat at the Great Lakes Circuit Finals in Louisville, Kentucky. Winkelman and Rory turned in three clean runs, each faster than the last, and earned checks in all three rounds en route to the average title in a time of 46.38 seconds. Photo by Phillip Kitts
Fame owner Joleen Hales, Rory was the final result. “He was born and I really liked the way he looked,” she explained. “So I went ahead and bred that mare again. I still had other horses I was running. Sadly, I lost her and the foal that following year. So he’s a one-and-only guy out of that combination.” That combination was a winning one all season and the pair easily Sara Winkelman won the average by only four hundredths of a second faster than second place Austyn Tobey. Winkelman will not get a chance at the national title at the NFR Open in July 2023 and will join Kricket Ginter, year-end champion, in representing the Great Lake Circuit. Photo
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32 WOMEN’S PRO RODEO NEWS DECEMBER 2022
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