Champion Arena Slams Grand Opening on Memorial Day Weekend.

The inaugural roping of Champion Arena in Show Low Arizona was a success on the scale of the facilities…that is BIG.  Cool temperatures and 40 acres of comfortable well designed facilities allowed The Roping Company to deliver big on cash, prizes, and good times with family and friends Memorial Day weekend 2009.  A lot was being said about Linden Valley Equestrian Center.  Ropers loved the pines and the handy warm-up arena and the easy-to-use stalls and especially the convenient and abundant parking.  Most all of the comments floating around Champion Arena included “wow”, or “snap”, or “sweet” , or “nice”, or “heck yeah”.    Anyway, you get the idea.  People liked the facilities in Linden Valley a whole bunch!  Come try it for size  and see how it fits and your crew.

The first roping at Show Low’s new equestrian center started Friday the 22^nd, with the #14 roping and was whipped into shape by Hunter Sherwood and Jeremy Alcott with 21.89/3.  Following the #14 was the highly anticipated #13 $10,000.00 Cash roping.  Dusty Perkins and Wallace Berryhill put together three fantastic runs notched 1^st in the average with 23.11/3 to collect $5,000 and breast collars.  Hunter  Sherwood and Terrance Claw were close behind with 24.27/3 to award them $2,000 and TRC belts.  The #12 was dominated by Rudy Clark Jr and Gabriel Santamaria  with a time of 25.55/3.  And for the final event of the 1^st day of roping at the new Champion Arena Kenny Mac and Terry Stratton bested the field of #10 40+ Ropers with 32.19 seconds on three head.  Congratulations to Dusty and Wallace on a fantastic day of roping in the new arena.

Saturday the 23^rd brought lower handicaps and much bigger crowds to the new Champion Arena.  In the #10 Chris Padilla and Lino Rubal roped strong and were awarded in kind for their 1^st place efforts with 25.28/3.  Prior to the #11 Trailer Event a one-steer #11 was held that paid three places and all of them were under six seconds.  Orlando Badonie and Kurtis Lee scored 1^st place f with 5.69 seconds.  The #11 Trailer Event was the main feature of the day and came down to a race between heelers Jim Baldwin and Brandon Perkins.  Jim roped with Tyler Nosie to knock down a quick 19.94/3 and 1^st place and 8^th with Gordon Tsosie.  Brandon however came in 2^nd, 8^th, and 9^th to best Jim so that Brandon took home the Gooseneck trailer and Jim the saddle.  As always when a lot of teams show then The Roping Company awards the ropers even beyond the guaranteed payout and so $5,000 was added to the #11 Trailer Roping.  Congratulations to both Jim on his saddle win and Brandon on his 3-horse Gooseneck Trailer and a great weekend at Champion Arena.

Sunday the 24^th ushered in Champion Arenas 1^st Saddle roping and a couple of other nice low-handicap ropings to boot.  The cash of the #10 was captured by Pedro Egurrola and Tim Norwalk with a smoking hot 22.44/3.  The #9 saddle roping was bested by Orlando Badonie and Chance Kiehne with a time of 20.80 who just squeaked by the 2^nd place team by one-tenth of a second.  Along with the saddles, Orlando and Chance also raked in $5,000.00 in cash for a pretty enjoyable day in the pines of Linden Valley Equestrian Center. Congratulations to Orlando and Chance on a great day at Champion Arena.  Sunday wound down with the #8 roping where George Garcia and Fred Tappan prevailed with 30.85/3.

The final day of the ’09 TRC Memorial Day Event started with the new Ultimate Roping Championship format #10.  Ropers this is a 21 and over higher entry fee roping meant to fill the gap for #3 - #5’s who want to participate in a 4-steer higher profile/money roping.  The qualifiers are $100/man and the direct entry for the championships are $1,000/man with a $30,000 payoff in each championship roping against only 60 teams.  But wait there is more.  10 places are paid in the average but if you get 4 steers down and are out of the money The Roping Company is going to give you your entry fees back.  So that is it!  It is simply a catchin’ contest!  And the first Qualifiers proved that concept.  Producers Jack Goodman and Cory Johnson combined on a breakneck 63.23/4 to win the very first URC qualifier, the #10 URC.  And for getting their four steers down Jack and Cory were rewarded handsomely with $1,400.00 which they promptly placed back in the pot as added money for the URC #9 and #8 at $700 added money apiece.  The net effect to the URC #9 and URC #8 was that they paid back a whopping 107% to entry fees!  That is pretty hard to beat at an amateur roping.    The URC #9 paid $1,350 on only 3 of 4 steers roped in 40.01 seconds to Dusty Perkins and Sy Cluff.  The URC #8 also paid $1,350 to 1^st but this time on just 2 of 4 steers to Dusty Perkins and Brenda Garvin.  The final roping Champion Arenas inaugural weekend was the #7 Buckle roping won by Ham Hansen and Fred Tapan for getting 3 tangled up in 32.53 seconds.

Many thanks to Kay Perkins and his family for the phenomenal new Champion Arena at Linden Valley Equestrian Center.  It was certainly a big hit with the ropers and their families.  Don’t take our word for it…call someone who has been there and they will tell you the same.  Thanks to Kenny and Dee of M&J trailers for their support.  Kudos to The Roping Company crew for pulling off the inaugural event with precision and class.  And most of all The Roping Company would like to thank those crazy, enthusiastic ropers and their supportive friends and families!  Thanks, and we’ll leave the wraps on for you!