Local bronc rider Elliot French records an 86, scores biggest
win of his career in Salt Lake City
HOLLISTER
Two weeks ago at the California Rodeo in Salinas, local bronc rider Elliot French noted the ups and downs of the rodeo season after compiling a somewhat disappointing score of 64.
“This is my best season so far, for sure,” French said in Salinas. “But it’s been so up and down that it could be a lot better.”
It didn’t take too long for the Hollister cowboy to turn it around, however.
With a first-place finish in Scottsdale, Ariz., earlier this year, not to mention a runner-up standing in Clovis that equaled his biggest payout of the season, French trumped them all last weekend when he rode to a first-place score of 86 at the Days of ’47 Rodeo in Salt Lake City, and rode off with the largest win of his career – both from a high-score and high-payout standpoint.
“This is my biggest win so far this year,” said French, 24, a 2003 graduate of San Benito High School.
Making his one go-round count atop Diamond G Rodeos’ Marlow’s Rose, French edged out Chad Ferley of Oelrichs, S.D., and Rusty Allen of Eagle Mountain, Utah, each of whom recorded matching scores of 84.
“In this case,” French said regarding his one and only go-round in Salt Lake City, “it was [a good thing] because I didn’t have to take two head to win it.”
Ferley and Allen rank in 12th and 17th place, respectively, in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s World Standings, a top-50 list, which positioned French at No. 42 for several weeks earlier this season.
Having been knocked from his top-50 standing since the Fourth of July weekend, though, French’s win in Salt Lake City vaults him to within approximately $200 of returning to the world rankings, a coveted position as cowboys try to qualify toward bigger and better rodeos next year, including RodeoHouston in March, which boasts the richest payouts during the regular season.
“It just starts your year off right,” said French, who sits in third place in saddle bronc on the California Circuit.
French scheduled to take this weekend off after hitting the rodeo circuit for about a month and a half, though, and he’s already second-guessing himself after last weekend’s big win.
“I needed to take a little time off,” said French, who will return next weekend for a rodeo in Klamath Falls, Ore. “Now I think I should have kept entering rodeos, but that’s how it goes.
“I guess I learned my lesson.”
