Barrel Racing Records
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2020 BARREL RACING RECORDS WOMEN’S PROFESSIONAL RODEO ASSOCIATION 431 S. Cascade Colorado Springs, CO 80903 Phone (719) 447-4726 • Fax (719) 447-4631 www.wpra.com TRIPLE GOLD Kinsel and Sister Rewrite WPRA Records En Route to Third Consecutive World Title By Ted Harbin ive days after earning her third straight Montana Silversmiths gold buckle, Hailey Kinsel was still a bit in awe of Fwhat she’d accomplished over the 10 nights of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. “It is still very surreal,” said Kinsel of Cotulla, Texas, who has finished among the top two in all four of her NFR qualifications. “I don’t know how much it’s set in. It was an While barrel racers rarely use their barrel horse during the exhausting NFR, an exhausting year, and it victory lap at a rodeo, Hailey Kinsel thought after all DM Sissy was so stressful going into the finals. We didn’t Hayday “Sister” had accomplished at this year’s NFR she de- know what kind of pattern we were going to served to get her own standing ovation. So on the final night the run, whether it was going to be a standard or duo took the victory lap together for winning the 2020 Wrangler a smaller pattern. We had to prepare without NFR average title. WPRA photo by Kenneth Springer knowing. “I think my body is still decompressing back on it now.” from all that stress. It’s a relief that we were What she pulled off was to be the first able to do what we did. To pull off a world woman in WPRA history to win the world title is definitely something I have worked for. title, the average title, the RAM Top Gun With all the challenges this year, we could award and post the fastest time of the NFR finally see the light at the end of the tunnel all in the same year. Along the way, she broke when we got to the NFR. It’s exciting to look her own record with a 16.56-second run on a standard pattern, shattering her mark of .63 at Dodge City, Kansas, in August. She also set a new standard in NFR earnings with $270,615. Oh, and don’t forget that she came within a whisker of beating her own season earnings mark of $350,700, finishing the COVID- infected season – which featured far fewer rodeos than any season before – just $1,624 shy of her mark she set in 2018. “I had my best NFR, and that makes the biggest difference,” she said. “For me to be close to that in a year like this, in a year with the big payouts being canceled, it speaks for Hailey Kinsel (second from left) captured her first Wrangler NFR how well things went at the NFR. You don’t average title with a total time of 170.95 seconds on 10 runs. plan on having an NFR like that all the time. That included a record setting run in the eighth round when she “It makes you wonder what my horse could and Sister stopped the clock in 16.56 seconds, the fastest time have done this year if we didn’t have so many ever record on a WPRA standard patter at a PRCA rodeo. WPRA rodeos canceled. If we could have gone to a photo by Kenneth Springer typical schedule of rodeos, I think she could have more earnings to her name.” the championship event No. 1 in the WPRA That’s DM Sissy Hayday, the speedy ProRodeo world standings with $86,725. She 9-year-old palomino rocket mare everyone held an $8,264 lead over Kinsel, who won on knows best as Sister, which should wear the opening night with a 17.18-second run. gold that matches her color. Kinsel may own At that point, Kinsel reclaimed the top spot the three trophy buckles, but Sister has secured and never relinquished it. Sister seemed to her place in barrel racing lore. thrive in the arena made into the shape of a Kinsel and her prized mount have become smaller baseball diamond and the cloverleaf the first tandem to claim three straight world track established on a standard pattern with titles since Kristie Peterson and Bozo did it plenty of room between the barrels and the from 1996-98. The top of the line, though, is blue NFR panels. Charmayne James and Scamper, who won 10 Through 10 nights of the sport’s in a row. championship event, Kinsel and Sister “If it happens, it happens, but my only goal dominated. They won five rounds and finished is to keep her sound and keep her at her best for as the runners-up in Rounds 2, 7 and 10. One as long as possible,” Kinsel said of Sister. “It’s of the two nights Kinsel didn’t place happened amazing when you look at the pairs that have in the sixth round, when she opted to ride run down the alley from the Thomas & Mack Cassidy Kruse’s 8-year-old sorrel gelding, to the days in Oklahoma City to Arlington, and Leroy. It was done as a way to give Sister a we had great horsepower that ran this year. break while also utilizing a horse that Kinsel “I never would have tagged one person to believed would handle being on the bottom of win the average, win the world and have the the ground a little better. fastest time. Even in the years they didn’t keep “The very reason she was able to run so track of who had the fast time, we all still well the final four nights is because of that knew. When you have horses of this caliber night off,” she said. “The sixth round was not coming in no matter where it is, it’s going to the kind of dirt she could gain confidence on. be a good race.” With this being on the standard pattern, it was It was a horserace before the NFR started in a longer run than she needed. She was tired. its 2020 home at Globe Life Field in Arlington, She was working perfect. God blessed me in a Texas, home of Major League Baseball’s Texas lot of ways of knowing in the past that if you Rangers. Brittany Pozzi-Tonozzi entered give a horse a minute when they’re working perfect, they’re going to thank you for it. there are no announcers and the fundamentals of the pattern and riding come into play over and over again. It’s the time Kinsel has spent lunging her horses and riding them through various workouts. Setting records is nothing new for her or the fabulous horse, and it’s become more of a standard for them. Both are wily and crafty – words used for veterans but fitting even though both are just still relatively young. “There’s a lot of planning that goes into having a horse like this,” Kinsel said. “It’s Hailey Kinsel celebrated winning the world title, average title, not so much what you’re doing in your run. fast time award and RAM Top Gun award with those that mean There’s a lot in having your angles perfect. the most to her – her family! This is the first time a WPRA Sister is very manual, and she lets me move member has won all four of those awards in the same year. around someone else’s track or to set up the WPRA photo by Kenneth Springer pocket the way we need. You can adjust things on her very well. “There was a whole lot of jockeying and “That definitely made a difference. We had changing. The majority of success we had goes a lot left to go, and I needed a fresh horse for back to the months of preparation for doing the final four rounds. I just wanted to make a well there. I didn’t have a clue what the setup solid run, and I knew she had a lot left in the would be like, but I did things specifically for tank.” her and what we thought it was going to be Kinsel had two nights of back-to-back like. We did a lot of planning when it comes go-round wins: the fourth and fifth rounds, to conditioning. I really think she was one of then the eighth and ninth. The latter virtually the most prepared horses for what we faced.” clinched the world title for the Cotulla cowgirl, It showed … night after night after night. but the .56 in Round 8 lit Globe Life Arena – She finished the challenging 2020 campaign and the barrel racing world – on fire. with $349,076 and outdistanced Pozzi “I just keep thinking God just keeps giving Tonozzi by nearly $148,000. Only five women me good things, and when you think that’s it, – Kinsel, Pozzi Tonozzi, Jill Wilson, Emily that is enough, then there is another,” Kinsel Miller-Beisel and Jimmie Smith – earned said after her eighth-round run. “My horse has more than that sum for the entire season. just been so amazing, and I just give her all When she arrived in north Texas for the two the credit. weeks of events surrounding the sport’s finale, “Setting the record in Dodge City was a she was outfitted with back No. 12, her place great time in my life and really needed to do on the overall money list. That hit her pretty well then, and tonight I just knew I needed to close to the heart.