Hometown bull rider Zane Lambert may not have reached the podium, but the chute has opened on his season in a good way.
Lambert who was the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Canada champion in 2017 and 2013, has three top five finishes on the PBR Monster Energy Tour so far this season to go along with a win at the Lea Park Rodeo (part of the Canadian touring pro rodeo circuit) in Marwayne, AB.
The latest good result for the 32 year old came at the big PBR tour stop, the Canadian Iron Cowboy in Quebec City on May 4. Lambert wound up third, earning $4,300, after being bucked off in the round of four cowboys.
His other premier Monster Energy Tour finishes included a fifth in Winnipeg back in January and a fourth in Calgary on April 22.
Lambert’s win in Marwayne not only got him more than $3,000 in prize money, but 320 points in the standings that now have him fourth overall in the Canadian rankings.
Big tour money
The Finning Pro Rodeo Tour, operated by the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA), has grown for 2019 both in events and payouts.
More than $1.5 million is on the line in the now 11 featured rodeos across the four western provinces this summer, including the largest outdoor seven day rodeo in Canada — the Ponoka Stampede.
“We’re really happy to see Finning back on board as our title sponsor… and to have FloRodeo making the action available to a wider audience.” said CPRA president Terry Cooke in a press release.
”We’ve got a terrific line-up of CPRA events overall and a Pro Tour that’s one of the biggest to date, in terms of added money and number of rodeos. And, with twice the payout at the Finals, we should see some great competition for rodeo fans to enjoy.”
Ponoka will be the third stop on the tour (June 25 - July 1) following the season opener in Grande Prairie (May 30 - June 2) and Wainwright that goes the weekend prior on June 20 to 23, while there will be many cowboys hopping on planes that last week of June as they also hit up the stop in Williams Lake, B.C. running June 27 to 30.
The rest of the tour consists of three stops in July — Teepee Creek, AB (12-14); Morris, MB (18-21); Medicine Hat (25-27) — to go along with four August events in Regina (2-4), Strathmore (2-5), Dawson Creek (9-11) and Armstrong, B.C. (28-31).
That last stop will also be home to the one-day Tour Finals on Sept. 1.