Cochrane’s Tanner Milan won’t be growing a bushy beard or wearing the same smelly socks between now and this weekend’s Calgary Stampede finals.
Cochrane’s Tanner Milan won’t be growing a bushy beard or wearing the same smelly socks between now and this weekend’s Calgary Stampede finals.
In fact, other than a few stretches to keep himself limber … the steer wrestler’s superstitions leading up to Showdown Sunday are decidedly sparse.
“I just hope to have a good run … and be the fastest guy, ” Milan said Monday afternoon, after his final of four runs in front of a packed Grandstand arena.
The 31-year-old member of Cochrane rodeo royalty earned $16,500 this week after posting three consecutive winning times of 4.2, 3.4 and 4.3 seconds to put him in second place overall in Pool A. Despite a disappointing scratch on Day 4, the bulldogger still secured a spot in the big show and a shot at the Stampede’s $100,000 prize - one of the largest rodeo hauls in the world.
Milan attributed his dominant performances to a draw of good steers, a strong relationship with his horse, Smoke, and the proximity of the largest outdoor rodeo on Earth to his hometown - which allows his steed to munch on green grass and rest in a familiar environment in Cochrane at the end of each challenging day.
“The horse is huge, ” said Milan, adding his older brother, Baillie, also gets a good chunk of the credit as his hazer, a steer wrestler’s right hand man who shadows the steer and guides it toward the sweet spot.
“You know where he’s going to be, ” Milan said. “It just works. ”
While rodeo fills the stands in the afternoons, the nights are alive with the thump of hooves during the chuckwagon races, and Cremona rider Chad Fike has been front and centre for the drama on this year’s track.
While Fike has won the Stampede as an outrider in the past, he hasn’t yet grabbed the green as a driver. He made the switch into the driver’s seat shortly after being named World Champion Outrider in 2012.
“I had accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish as an outrider, ” he said.
It was a successful move, with Fike named top rookie by the World Professional Chuckwagon Association in 2013 and two years later honoured with the Orville Strandquist Memorial Award as the Calgary Stampede’s Top Rookie Driver.
This summer, he was ranked eighth in the world before recent races with some sick horses in Medicine Hat and Ponoka caused him to slip to 21st.
“To be competitive and to be running tough, the horses have to be on their game. When everything clicks, everything’s good … You can tell when they’re having a bad day, ” he said. “We’re timed at one 100th of a second. 50 or 100 can drop you 20 spots in the points for the night. ”
Fike said he has 22 horses on his full team for the Stampede, with four hitched up to the wagon on each of the seven night aggregate of preliminary racing. His goal after eight nights is to land in the Top 8 so he can advance to Saturday’s semi-finals, and hopefully into Sunday’s final $100,000 dash.
After Tuesday night’s race, Fike sat 23rd in the standings.
“We’ve had some unfortunate trips but we’re staying clean ... If we can stay clean and keep plugging away we’ll be alright, ” Fike said yesterday, adding he’s still got a shot at the big finale.
“Anything’s possible - there’s still three nights left of racing. A lot can change in three nights. It just takes the right guys to take penalties and (get in) some big runs and we’ll be good. ”
Fike said, no matter how it works out for him this week, he knows he will continue to fight his way around the Stampede oval until he succeeds.
“Everyone wants to win Calgary, ” he said. “I’m not going to give up until that’s accomplished. ”
Back in the saddle, Milan currently sits sixth in the world with 2017 wins totaling a little more than $50,000.
After Monday’s rejected rustle, the two-time Canadian champion wasted no time licking his wounds - he and his crew, which includes fellow riders Scott Guenther and Harley Cole, hit the road later that same afternoon to Billings, Montana. The friends planned to put more than 3,000 miles on the truck at rodeos in the U.S. and Canada before returning to the Stampede Grandstand for the big final on Sunday.
“There’s a lot of joking going on between each other, ” said Milan of the long road trips. “I enjoy it … It’s one of the greatest sports ever. ”
Fike also travels the circuit with older brother, Jordie, who is also racing in the Stampede, as well as his wife, their two sons, his grandmother and grandfather, Ron David - the latter of whom is a champion rider himself.
“We used to follow him down the road, ” remembered Fike. “I don’t think, if I couldn’t have my family with me, if it would be as fun of a sport. There’s not a lot of other jobs that you can take your family with you. ”
