The World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA) and Days of ’47 Cowboy Games and Rodeo announced yesterday that they will be adding breakaway roping to the rodeo’s high-paying roster of events this July. The five-day Olympics-style rodeo pays $50,000 to the winners and boast a $125,000 purse overall, and one breakaway roper will now have that very same opportunity to earn the big cash prize and gold medal alongside the seven other official rodeo events.

Watch the Days Of '47 Cowboy Games And Rodeo LIVE on FloRodeo, July 19-24, 2019.

This season, the WCRA has included breakaway roping as an equal-opportunity event at all of their produced events, giving female rodeo competitors another avenue to compete on a professional level.

“Our mission is to advance the sport of rodeo with our alliance partners like the DO47 who support our decision to provide female rodeo athletes more opportunities,” WCRA president Bobby Mote said in a press release. “This historical addition of breakaway roping at the DO47 will give female ropers more opportunities, including the ability to compete for equal and big-money payouts.”

The addition of breakaway roping also helps the event surpass an exciting monetary milestone—with breakaway roping added, the Days Of 47 will now payout over a million dollars this summer. Mote called WPRA world champion breakaway roper Jackie Crawford to tell her the news that she would be the first exemption spot into the brand-new event for breakaway roping shortly before it was announced to the public. 

“Oh my goodness, you know in the back of my mind I was really hoping that’s what this phone call was about but I just thought ‘Oh no, they already turned it down and it’s not going to happen,'” said Crawford on the FaceTime call with Mote.

“I am so pumped, that changes my summer a lot for sure.”

So ladies, want to know how you get your hands on that cash?

Well, Jackie Crawford is the only one qualified via exemption so far—an opportunity she earned by winning the Windy City Roundup in Chicago, Illinois—leaving 32 spots left to be filled via:

• Utah Timed Event Classic, Heber City: May 3-4 (one spot)
• WCRA Title Town Stampede, Green Bay: June 1 (one spot)
• College National Finals Rodeo, Casper: June 9-15 (one spot)
• WCRA Virtual Rodeo Qualifier Standings (28 spots as of July 8)

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