As Gunnedah watched its own fast-paced action at the AgQuip Rodeo at Gunnedah Showground this week, the famous Mt Isa Mines Rotary Rodeo was celebrating Warwick cowboy Michael Maher’s third successive saddle bronc ride.
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Back-to-back wins are hard to come by at Mt Isa and Maher made it three in succession when he won the first round, final and aggregate at Mt Isa at the weekend.
Maher won with a score of 150 from reigning Australian Professional Rodeo Association titleholder Brad Pierce, of Tooma, NSW, and Millmerran (Queensland) rider John McNamee who split second with a two-round score of 144.
After three Mt Isa wins and one at the Warwick Rodeo, Maher has won four of the past five saddle bronc rides at the two biggest rodeo in the APRA, Mt Isa and Warwick.
He is now the outright favourite for The Warwick Rodeo National Finals on October 27-30 when the top 15 in each event will battle it out for 2016 title buckles.
Fred Osman from Tibooburra in north-west NSW shared the bareback title at Mt Isa with David Worsfold, of Wandoan (Queensland). They finished with a two-round score of 156 after Osman won round 1 and Worsfold the final.
The bulls proved too good for most of the riders in the final of the bull ride at Mt Isa with only Alton Downs (Queensland) cowboy Jared Borghero riding time. Jared scored 81 for equal second in round 1 and 86 in the final for a runaway win in the aggregate. Round 1 winner Roy Dunn, of Proserpine, was second overall.
Jared’s brother Jay was equal third in the open bull ride and won the second division bull ride.
In timed events, Scone (NSW) rider Heath Nichols won the rope and tie with a two-round time of 18.8 seconds from Ebenezer (Queensland) cowboy Mark Knox with a time of 20.45.
Alton Downs (Queensland) young gun Jordan Iker was .1 of a second behind Knox.
Caboolture (Queensland) cowboy Lachlan O’Neill won the steer wrestling from Clermont (Queensland) rider Jamie Reynolds.
In team roping, Central Queensland pair Shane Kenny and Cameron Milner were victorious in the aggregate with 18.1 seconds.
APRA rodeo action will now move to Pine Creek (NT) on August 19 and Glenden Rodeo and Xtreme Bull Ride (Queensland) on August 20.
The Moura Showgrounds will be the venue for an Xtreme Bulls Rodeo on August 26-27.
