Payne Jumps Eight Spots to No. 6 as Smith, Payne Win Pendleton

Clay Smith and Coleby Payne came back fifth on two head Saturday and left the Pendleton Round-Up with the biggest check of the weekend, winning the short round in 5.8 and the average in 18.9 on three head for a $12,500 a man take home on the grass.

For Payne it is the run of the fall. He came into the day at $111,813 and No. 14 in the heeling world standings, roughly $11,700 short of where TRJ projects the NFR cut will land. He leaves at about $124,313 and No. 6 — past Wyatt Cox, JC Flake, Dillon Graham, Lane Mitchell, Denton Dunning, Jake Long, Trey Yates, Douglas Rich and, by $26, Ross Ashford. Eight days ago he was in the conversation about who might miss the Finals. He is now the highest-placed man in the sport who was on the bubble a week ago.

Smith goes to about $103,497 and No. 17 in the heading standings, up from outside the top 20. It is the fourth time the two have cashed in three weeks, after Ellensburg, Walla Walla and Lewiston.

TRJ’s working projection for the NFR cut remains about $119,500 heading and $123,500 heeling. TRJ’s projected cut is a working estimate, not a PRCA figure. It takes the amount the No. 15 line climbed between mid-September and the Sept. 30 close in 2025, applies it to where the line sits now, and adds an allowance for the Stephenville jackpot, which is new money this year. Ranges: $117,000–$122,000 heading, $121,000–$126,000 heeling.

The full Pendleton payoff

Begay won the most

Smith and Payne won the average, but Begay and Todd left with more: $17,371 a man across the first round, the short round and second in the average — the largest single-rodeo haul of anyone on either bubble this season.

Begay came in No. 16 heading at $103,856. He leaves at $114,048 and about No. 11, past Coy Rahlmann, Clint Summers, Dawson Graham, Ketch Kelton and Dustin Egusquiza. A man who had been $651 to $1,250 outside the line for a week is now $8,000 clear of it.

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Where the lines sit

Heading: No. 8 Cody Snow $120,987; No. 9 Brye Crites $119,386; No. 10 Andrew Ward $119,217; No. 11 Begay $114,048; No. 12 Egusquiza $111,933; No. 13 Kelton $110,218; No. 14 Dawson Graham $107,278; No. 15 Clint Summers $106,068; No. 16 Rahlmann $105,106; No. 17 Smith $103,497; No. 18 Brenten Hall $103,029; No. 19 Nelson Wyatt $98,548.

Heeling: No. 6 Payne $124,313; No. 7 Ross Ashford $124,287; No. 8 Douglas Rich $121,984; No. 9 Trey Yates $121,469; No. 10 Jake Long $119,217; No. 11 Dunning $119,073; No. 12 Mitchell $118,284; No. 13 Dillon Graham $114,573; No. 14 JC Flake $111,933; No. 15 Wyatt Cox $111,653; No. 16 Wesley Thorp $106,380; No. 17 Logan Medlin $106,072; No. 18 Jade Corkill $106,068; No. 19 Trent Vaught $104,525.

Cox’s $4,838 for a share of third in the first round is his only check since Ellensburg. Wyatt was the only man in the short round to leave with nothing after a no-time, and he hasn’t cashed since Filer on Sept. 5.

What it did for Sioux Falls

Pendleton paid Playoff Series points to the top 20 in the average at the top tier — 150 to win, 130 for second, 113 for third.

The biggest beneficiary is Mitchell. Seventh in the average pays 53 points, taking him to 940.25 — which, after the roll-down for Puyallup qualifiers, puts him eighth in the heeling race and inside the Governor’s Cup field by 4.62 points over Nicky Northcott. He entered the weekend 14th and 48 points out.

Snow’s 53 points take him to 1,021.13 and clear of the last heading spot, which now belongs to Crites at 978.75 — a frozen number, since Crites no-timed at Mandan on Saturday. Begay sits at 959.13, needing 19.62 points, which at Mandan’s 15 paid holes is a mid-pack finish.

Where the top 15 stands

Headers

Heelers

Medlin and Corkill are $4 apart. Flake is $280 from the cutline on the inside.

Stephenville: what the last day pays

Three rounds, an aggregate and a short round, Sept. 30, open entry, 90 teams. Per man.

A perfect day — all three rounds, the aggregate and the short round — is $22,203.90.

What each roper has to place at Stephenville

The lowest hole that still clears the cutline as it stands. Aggregate figured alone; round and short-round money sits on top.

Unofficially, Torres is the one the ladder can’t reach: a round win plus the aggregate win is $12,583, and he needs $13,105.

What’s left

Mandan ends Sunday, with Summers and Corkill, Hall and Cox, Kelton and Dunning, Snow and Mitchell, Wyatt and Torres, the Grahams, Kittle and Yates, Kidd and Johnson and the Minors all still to rope — both No. 15s in the same performance, the last before Monday’s points cutoff.

Then the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls, Sept. 25–27, $166,667 a side. Then the Stephenville jackpot on Sept. 30 — three rounds at $4,194.28, an aggregate at $8,388.56 and a short round at $1,232.50 a man, with 90 teams entered.

The part nobody can chart

The tables above assume the money left is the money we can see. It isn’t.

Contestants are capped at 80 counting rodeos, and how many a man has used is not public. A roper sitting $962 out with rodeos to spare and a roper sitting $962 out who is at his limit are in completely different positions, and from the outside they look identical.

Entries aren’t the full picture either. A roper who isn’t on a daysheet can walk up at a rodeo with turnouts, get in, and have that money count if he has rodeos left — Riley Kittle and Trey Yates did exactly that at Othello this week. So a man who appears to have nothing left may cash somewhere nobody was watching, and money can appear in the standings from a rodeo that was never on anyone’s chart.

Standings math is PRCA figures current to Sept. 14 plus official money since. Extremely Unofficial.