Gray hangs on to lead in PRCA bareback standings

Ryan Gray continues to ride high.

Cheney’s favorite rodeo son still sits on top of the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association bareback standings as the season heads into the final five weeks.

Gray leads the standings, which are based on money won, with earnings of $89,645. Kaycee Feild of Payson, Utah who’s collected $89,062, is second.

“At this point it’s kind of win as much as you can each week,” Gray said as he keeps up his quest to return to the National Finals Rodeo Dec. 5-14 at the Thomas and Mack Center at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Gray comes off an average week. “Last week was decent I guess,” Gray said from his Lincoln County home. “I only went to three rodeos.”

He failed to place at Canby, Ore. “I (had) a 77 at Caldwell (Idaho) and didn’t make short round there. I didn’t have a good horse.” But his short trip to Moses Lake was worth the drive where he won with an 85-point ride.

This week Gray will be a bit busier. This past Wednesday, Gray was in Kennewick for the Horse Heaven Round-Up and followed that with a trip to Bremerton (tonight, Aug. 22) for the Kitsap Stampede and then San Juan Capistrano, Calif. Saturday.

Gray will fly back in time for a ride This Sunday (Aug. 25) in Coeur d’Alene.

“Your standings, they’re obviously going to change every week because there’s so much money to be won,” Gray said, so he’s trying to get in as many events as possible between now and the end of September.

Looking at what is making this year different than 2012 where he earned just shy of $49,000 and missed the NFR for the first time since 2006, “This year I feel like I have kind of a drive, not making the finals last year,” Gray said.

“There’s a little fire under the belt, that and I’m healthy” Gray said. “I’m riding as good as I‘ve ridden in a long time.”

So Gray doesn’t plan on slowing the pace much as he pursues that path to Vegas. “We’ll just be going to most every rodeo in the northwest,” he said. “It’s not slowing down by any means.”

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.