{"id":141909,"date":"2026-01-29T00:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/141909\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T00:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:39:19","slug":"2025-nfr-barrel-racing-rookie-dominates-bracket-2-in-fort-worth-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/141909\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 NFR Barrel Racing Rookie Dominates Bracket 2 in Fort Worth, Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"57\">The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is the second major destination this winter for athletes looking to fight their way into this year&#8217;s National Finals Rodeo. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/rodeo\/news\/colorado-born-barrel-racer-finds-breakout-success-new-horse-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Western Stock Show<\/a> and Rodeo in Denver just finished up. Now it&#8217;s time for Texas.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5a\">Like Denver, Fort Worth is set up in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/rodeo\/news\/heart-warming-ehv-1-story-on-full-display-national-western-stock-show\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tournament-style format<\/a>, but this rodeo is a little different. Instead of an average to see who will advance, it is based on the money won. Each contestant competes twice, and it is a clean slate each night. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5d\">The performance payout is as stated:<\/p>\n<p>1st- $2,5002nd- $1,9003rd-$1,5004th-$1,0005th-8th $125<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5j\">So, at the end of two rounds of action, the top two money earners advance to the semi-finals, and the third-highest money earner heads to the wild card round. Bracket two was highlighted by a barrel racer who could not be beat: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/rodeo\/news\/meet-six-first-time-national-finals-rodeo-qualifiers-barrel-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hayle Gibson-Stillwell. <\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5m\">There have been two contestants in any of event thus far able to pull off a clean sweep, both compete in the barrel racing. Gibson-Stillwell not only took home $5,000 for a pair of wins but also ran the fastest time of the rodeo in her first run. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5p\">Gibson-Stillwell will be joined by another 2025 NFR rookie in the semis, Tricia Aldridge, with veteran Andrea Busby headed to the wild card round. <\/p>\n<p>Other Timed Event Highlights<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/01kc9rvj2dvtdc3p41db.jpg\" alt=\"Kincade Henry holding his slack and stepping off of his horse at the NFR in 202\" title=\"Kincade Henry holding his slack and stepping off of his horse at the NFR in 202\" width=\"3700\" height=\"2081\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"61\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Nathan Meyer Photography<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">Kincade Henry took care of business in an ugly first round of the tie-down roping pool as a trio of 11-second runs took first through third. Everyone bounced back in round two, and Henry, alongside Zack Jongbloed, posted two of the fastest runs of the rodeo.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"68\">In the other ladies&#8217; event of the evening, breakaway roping, it was Martha Angelone who cracked the 2-second barrier for the first time. It won&#8217;t be surprising to see that keep happening as the week goes on, as this is a slinging contest to say the least. <\/p>\n<p>Rough Stock Standouts<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">The bull riding was definitely not won by the two-legged, as there was only one covered ride in two rounds of action: Trey Kimzey. Kimzey not only took home the entire pot ($7,400) for his 80-point ride in round one, but was the lone man to control his fate in Fort Worth. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Another young man was in charge of his own destiny in the bareback riding, as 23-year-old Gavin French stole bracket two after placing second with both of his rides. He will be a new face in the semi-finals, but he appears ready. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">The finals are still a long ways off, but some are now much closer than others. There is still a chance for those who made it into the wild card, but their path is going to be a little more difficult now. This is going to be a good two weeks of action that fans do not want to miss. <\/p>\n<p>More Rodeo News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is the second major destination this winter for athletes looking to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-141909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}