Saturday was a doozie for attendance, with the Calgary Stampede likely sailing to a new record with even just a modest crowd on the final Sunday.
Stampede Saturday drew 156,400 people, which brings the new day attendance to 1,331,280. That’s only about 78,000 people short of a new attendance record, which was set back in 2012.
Too many big things are happening on the Stampede grounds on Sunday not to hit that number, with the final Sunday of the Stampede rodeo and the Dash for Cash in the Rangeland Derby Sunday night.
But, there’s even more than that to draw people down Sunday, including the Elbow River Camp closing ceremonies, and some great closing night musical acts: Nickelback and The Glorious Sons, Calgary musician Lindsay Ell at Nashville North, Benson Boone on the Coca-Cola stage, and then at the Big Four Roadhouse it’s Melissa Ethridge followed by Jewel.
Plus, there are lots of great finds at the Stampede, like the Miniature Horse Show (11 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 7) and the SAM Centre with Calgary Stampede history, or the Dog Bowl – all free with admission.
Sunday’s Cowboys Rangeland Derby is shaping up to be all-time, as Jason Glass and Chanse Vigen go toe-to-toe in the final heat, with Glass holding a half-second lead over Vigen. Layne MacGillivray pulls up in third.
Despite leading for a good portion of this year’s Rangeland Derby, Chad Fike came up two-tenths of a second short of a showdown in the final race. Full chuckwagon results can be found here.
At the Calgary Stampede rodeo, Calgary cowboy Jake Stemo locked in an 85 aboard Fancy in the bareback event, good for third place and $4,500 behind Jacob Lees from Caldwell, Idaho, who rode American Thumper to an 87.5.
Ben Andersen of Rocky Mountain House went back-to-back wins in the saddle bronc event, this time on Enuff Cherry, scoring an 89.5.
Macon Murphy, Marty Yates and Joel Harris all tied at the top of the leaderboard on Day 9 of tie-down roping, each scoring a 7.5. Irwin Kyle of Robertsdale, Florida locked down a 4.2 to take day money in steer wrestling.
Hailey Kinsel, only two days removed from her other day money win, secured the top spot in Ladies Barrel Racing with a 17.06 on Day 9.
In bull riding, Callum Miller of Warwick, Queensland, Australia scored an 86 aboard Hard Not to Get for the Day 9 win.
Full rodeo results can be found here.
