Rodeo Gets the White-Glove Treatment

By Paula Parisi September 7, 2011

It was another great year for the Rancho Mission Viejo Rodeo in San Juan Capistrano, which drew a capacity crowd, sent cowboys home with more than $185,000 in prize money, and raised $100,000 for local charities, said event chairman Gilbert Aguirre.

“It was smashing success,” said the cattleman, who operates a 23,000 acre working ranch in the area. “This is our 11^th year,” he said of the Aug. 27-28 event. “I’m very proud of the fact that we started it as a way to perpetuate the cowboy life. There is a whole group of people in Orange county who had never seen a rodeo, and would probably have never seen one if we hadn’t done it this way.”

The “way” Aguirre refers to is what he calls a “white tablecloth rodeo.”  No dusty, buffalo chip-kickin’ event this! Patrons are treated to a colorful, orderly affair with six events, each limited to the top-ranked 30 contestants in the category.

“We’ve modeled it after the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. They take the top 15 earners and we invite the top 30,  and with the kind of money we offer, we can catapult people into the top 15,” Aguirre said.

At the RMV Rodeo, capacity in general admission seating is about 3,500, but another lucky 90 patrons purchase tented VIP seating at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 per table of eight. The event reliably sells out. “Pro Rodeo Sports News called it ‘a high-society rodeo,’” Aguirre said with no little hint of satisfaction. We’ve managed to broaden the base of fans.”

The contestants are given the royal treatment too, riding the best roughstock available from hand-picked contractors including Flying U of Marysville and Flying 5 from Bend, OR. “They bring the bucking stock – the bulls and the horses. “No one person has 30 top horses, but a number of people have 10. We use different contractors so everybody has an opportunity to win.”

Because of where it falls on the calendar–at the tail-end of qualifying period for  the year’s Wrangler NFR in Las Vegas (which cuts off Sept. 30) the Rancho Mission Viejo Rodeo draws stellar cowboy talent. The world’s top-ranked roper, living legend Trevor Brazile of Decatur, Texas, was there. He came away with two second-place finishes and the All-Around Cowboy title.

Thanks to the RMV Rodeo and one that followed in Idaho, winning team ropers Spencer Mitchell of Santa Rosa and Broc Cresta of Petaluma were able to vault into the sweet spot for Vegas, landing in the Top 5 in the world standings and assuring Mitchell of his first NFR trip.

Mitchell wasn’t the only champion at the PRCA’s richest two-day rodeo to leverage success into an inaugural NFR berth. Casey Colletti of Pueblo, Colorado, shared the bareback riding title at the RMV Rodeo with Laramie, Wyoming-based Ryan Gray – tying for first with 86 points. Colletti continued a one-month hot streak that began at Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and he did it as a last-minute sub for Clint Cannon, who withdrew due to injury (a torn groin muscle).

“I got the call from PROCOM [onAug. 23] that I was in the rodeo as a replacement for Clint Cannon of Houston, TX, who got hurt,” Colletti said. “When the entries closed, I was No. 32 in the standings. That was the Friday before the short round at Cheyenne.”

With the $6,338 he earned for sharing the title with Gray, plus a second-place finish at the Range Days Rodeo in Rapid City, SD, and a third-place result at the Horse Heaven Round-up in Kennewick, WA, Colletti finished the weekend with $10,074, moving him from 12th to sixth place in the world standings.

In the little more than a decade that the RMV Rodeo has been in business it has generated more than $1.1 million for charity. This year, the Shea Therapeutic Riding Center and the Camino Health Center each got $50,000. When he’s not running his rodeo or raising money for charitable causes, Aguirre is working the cattle ranch that’s been in his family since 1882. Originally 300,000 acres, a sizable chunk was sold to the military in 1942 for use as Camp Pendleton.  A lot has changed in the  130 years since Rancho Mission Viejo was founded, but one thing hasn’t, Aguirre said: “You’ve gotta have cowboys.”

 

RESULTS: Rancho Mission Viejo Rodeo

San Juan Capistrano, Calif., Aug. 27-28 All-around cowboy: Trevor Brazile, $9,120, team roping and tie-down roping.

Bareback riding: 1. (tie) Ryan Gray, Cheney, WA, on Cervi Championship Rodeo’s War Victory, and Casey Colletti, on Flying U Rodeo’s Comanchero, 86 points, $6,338 each; 3. Jared Smith, 85, $4,066; 4. Brian Bain, 84, $2,631; 5. (tie) J.R. Vezain and Matt Bright, 83, $1,435 each; 7. (tie) Cody DeMers and Will Lowe, 82, $837 each.

Steer wrestling: 1. Lee Graves, 4.1 seconds, $4,422; 2. Jason Miller, 4.3, $3,957; 3. Dean Gorsuch, 4.6, $3,491; 4. Todd Suhn, 4.7, $3,026; 5. (tie) Ethen Thouvenell, Billy Bugenig and Wade Sumpter, 4.9, $2,095 each; 8. (tie) Dru Melvin and Cole Edge, 5.1, $931 each; 10. (tie) Stockton Graves and Clayton Hass, 5.4, $116 each.

Team roping: 1. Spencer Mitchell/Broc Cresta, 4.8 seconds, $5,776 each; 2. (tie) Ty Blasingame/York Gill and Trevor Brazile/Patrick Smith, 5.1, $4,864 each; 4. (tie) Coleman Proctor/Caleb Twisselman, Luke Brown/Martin Lucero and Clay Tryan/Travis Graves, 5.2, $3,344 each; 7. (tie) Derrick Begay/Cesar de la Cruz and Charly Crawford/Russell Cardoza, 5.3, $1,824 each; 9. Matt Sherwood/Cory Petska, 5.6, $912; 10. Kaleb Driggers/Brad Culpepper, 6.0, $304.

Saddle bronc riding: 1. Wade Sundell, 85 points on Rosser Rodeo’s Flood Damage, $6,584; 2. Ty Atchison, 84, $5,047; 3. Louie Brunson, 82, $3,731; 4. (tie) Bradley Harter, Cody Taton and Cody DeMoss, 80, $1,682 each; 7. Cody Wright, 79, $878; 8. Isaac Diaz, 78, $658.

Tie-down roping: 1. Monty Lewis, 7.9 seconds, $5,776; 2. Justin Macha, 8.3, $5,168; 3. (tie) Trevor Brazile and Matt Shiozawa, 8.4, $4,256 each; 5. (tie) Justin Maass and Hunter Herrin, 8.6, $3,040 each; 7. Tuf Cooper, 8.7, $2,128; 8. Cory Solomon, 8.8, $1,520; 9. Clint Robinson, 8.9, $912; 10. Ryan Jarrett, 9.0, $304

Bull riding: 1. Shane Proctor, 93 points on Flying U Rodeo’s Bring It, $6,584; 2. Seth Glause, 89, $5,047; 3. John Jacobs, 84, $3,731; 4. (tie) Tag Elliott and Colin McTaggart, 82, $1,975 each; 6. (tie) Patrick Geipel and Lucas Guilbeau, 81, $988; 8. Stormy Wing, 77, $658.

Total payoff: $185,361. Stock contractor: Flying U Rodeo, Rosser Rodeo, Cervi Championship Rodeo, Beutler Brothers & Cervi, Big Bend Rodeo Company and Flying 5 Rodeo Company. Rodeo secretary: Cindy Rosser

For more information about the Rancho Mission Viejo Rodeo, visit www.rmvrodeo.com, or click here to read about them on Facebook. To see more of Richard Levine’s photography, visit www.richardfieldlevine.com.

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