The Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale closed its 19th season in December 2025 by shattering every prior benchmark. Held Dec. 5–14 at the South Point Equestrian Center in Las Vegas, the event paid out a record-setting $20,427,600 in cash, along with more than $600,000 in additional prizes, marking the highest-paying Quarter Horse roping ever held. That's a striking leap even by WSTR's own trajectory: for a decade the payout had climbed steadily by about $1 million a year, then jumped $2 million to top $18 million in 2024 — and 2025 blew past that pattern entirely, crossing the $20 million threshold for the first time. More than 5,000 teams competed across the event's divisions, with the Ariat #9.5 division again standing as the highest-paying roping of the Finale.
WSTR
WSTR is a national handicapped team roping series. Ropers qualify at local and regional ropings throughout the year, building toward the Ariat WSTR Finale in Las Vegas each December alongside the NFR — one of the largest equestrian events in the world, with $18M+ paid out and thousands of teams competing.
World Series of Team Roping
General
The WSTR Finale is the culmination of a season-long qualifier circuit — the organization runs more than 140 qualifying events nationally and internationally, feeding teams into the Las Vegas finale through handicap divisions that keep header-heeler pairs matched by combined skill classification. Leadership under Connie Gentry, President of Equine Network's World Series of Team Roping, has guided the program since 2020, and the record payout arrives as WSTR heads into its 20th anniversary season, with the 2026 Finale already set for Dec. 5–13 at South Point. The organization has continued layering in incentive programs alongside the core payout — including the Riata Stallion Incentive Program, which added sponsorship money to the Open Finale and bonus incentives for ropers competing on Riata horses — underscoring how much money now moves through the sport's biggest week of the year.