Behind the Top 15: Derrick Begay

No. 10 | $134,548

• Age: 42
• Hometown: Seba Dalkai, Arizona
• Career earnings: $1,942,961
• NFR Qualifications: 13 (2008–13, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2023–26)
• NFR Average titles: 1 (2023)
• Major ropings: George Strait Team Roping Classic, Hork Dog
• Major rodeos: NFR, RODEOHOUSTON, The American, Indian National Finals Rodeo, San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, Turquoise Circuit Finals, Ogden Pioneer Days, Guymon Pioneer Days, Greeley Stampede, Colorado State Fair & Rodeo, Pendleton Round-Up, Poway Rodeo, Magic Valley Stampede (Filer, Idaho), San Angelo Rodeo, Cheyenne Frontier Days, Reno Rodeo, Heber City, Utah, Prescott, Arizona, California Rodeo Salinas, Justin Boots Championships (Omaha, Nebraska)
• Star Horsepower: Caseys Glory (The Sorrel), Paint, Swagger
• Rope Choice: Lonestar Thunderbird

It’s been 17 years since the Navajo Nation’s Derrick Begay made his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo appearance.

Since then, Begay has earned 11 more trips to Las Vegas, and with the 2025 ProRodeo season now complete, he secured his 12th qualification.

Raised in Seba Dalkai, Arizona, Begay was brought up in the saddle with a rope in hand—a start that set him on the path to becoming one of ProRodeo’s most respected headers.

Begay made his NFR debut in 2008 with Victor Aros. From 2009 to 2013, he partnered with Cesar de la Cruz, collecting 16 NFR go-round wins or placings. Their run included victories at Prescott, Arizona (2009); a tie for the Cheyenne Frontier Days title (2010); and wins at Pendleton, Oregon, Rodeo Austin, Pecos, Texas, and Steamboat Springs, Colorado (2011). In 2012, they captured the Turquoise Circuit Finals along with titles at Prescott, Casper, Wyoming, and Vernal, Utah. They wrapped up their partnership in 2013 with wins at Omaha, Nebraska; Redding, California; Pendleton; Salinas, California; and Dillon, Montana.

Begay joined forces with seven-time World Champion Clay O’Brien Cooper in 2015 and 2017, qualifying for the NFR their first year together and placing in or winning five rounds. He partnered with Cory Petska in 2018, finishing fifth in the NFR average with three round wins.

In 2023, Begay reunited with longtime friend Colter Todd. Their comeback season ended with the NFR average championship.

‘We’re Just Friends Out Here; I Don’t Even Know What We’re Doing.’ — Best Friends Begay and Todd Win NFR Aggregate Title (BAM!)

“We’re just friends out here,” Begay told The Team Roping Journal after the win. “I don’t even know what we’re doing. I mean, I apologized for cutting in. But that’s it.”

The duo carried that momentum into 2024, where they won the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Begay secured another NFR qualification, while Todd narrowly missed, leaving the team looking toward 2025.

This winter, Begay and Todd claimed RodeoHouston, flying to No. 1 in the world standings—a spot they held on and off for most of the 2025 season.

Begay and Todd Win 2025 RodeoHouston

“We’re leading the world standings, but the reason why is because we won Houston,” Begay told The Team Roping Journal. “We’re supposed to be because, I mean, it pays way more than the rest. So, we’re actually not leading the world standings because of the way we roped. We’re just leading the world standing because of the way we roped at Houston. The guys behind us, Tanner (Tomlinson) and TG (Travis Graves), they’ve been probably roping the best because they didn’t win Houston.”

Outside of Houston, the pair earned checks in the average at Santa Fe, New Mexico; St. Paul, Oregon; the second round at the NFR Open in Colorado Springs; the first round in Salinas; the average in Ogden, Utah; Burley, Idaho; Bremerton, Washington; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and capped their season with a second-round win at the Pendleton Round-Up.

Begay closed the 2025 regular season with $166,201 in the world standings, sitting third behind Kaleb Driggers and Tanner Tomlinson heading into his 12th NFR appearance.

*Unofficial* Team Roping Field for the 2025 NFR Determined

Begay and Colter Todd placed in three rounds at the 2025 NFR and finished fifth in the average with 56.6 on eight head, worth $31,937 a man. Begay ended the year ninth in the world with $235,541. Weeks earlier, the two had won back-to-back Turquoise Circuit year-end titles, Begay’s fifth.

His 13th qualification took everything he had. In mid-September, Begay was 18th in the world. At the Pendleton Round-Up, he and Todd won the first round in 4.8, placed in the short round and finished second in the average for $17,371 a man, the biggest single-rodeo haul of anyone on the bubble. With checks at Mandan, Albuquerque and St. George on top of that, they won $28,016 apiece in one week.

Begay Passes on $166,667-a-Side Sioux Falls to Do Battle with Todd in 2026’s Season’s Final Week

Then Begay made a choice that said a lot about the partnership. He had qualified for the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls, with $166,667 a side up for grabs, but he skipped it to spend the final week of the season roping with Todd, who sat 16th in the heeling standings. They placed at San Bernardino, which moved Todd inside the line, and won Round 2 at the 377 Last Hoorah in Stephenville for $4,333 a man. Begay finished No. 10 with $134,548, and Todd held on to the last heeling spot.

It was the same thing Begay told TRJ after the two won the 2023 NFR average: “We’re just friends out here.”

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