Five Down Three to Go
Leading the PRCA World Standings in bull riding for five consecutive years on opening day of the National Finals Rodeo, ten days later Kimzey always leaves Las Vegas with a world title victory.
Starting with his record-breaking rookie year in 2014, Sage Steele Kimzey has dominated the regular season in earnings and titles won. His total PRCA Career Earnings are a staggering $1,829,933.00.
NFR CBS Sports commentator Tuff Hedeman should have plenty to talk about and with Sage Kimzey.
Two bull riders have seriously challenged Kimzey’s Gold Buckle at the NFR. Trey Benton in 2017 and last year rookie NFR rider Chase Daughtery, but in the end, the champ always finds a way to walk out of the Thomas and Mack with the Gold Buckle.
Not only has Sage been the PRCA superstar, but he has also enjoyed tremendous success in the bull riding only category. He broke the CBR held the record for World Championships in 2016, winning for the third time. (2014, 2015, 2017.) At the American he went head to head with the PBR superpowers and defeated them at the Dallas Cowboys AT&T Stadium.
“Kimzey’s gold-paved 2017 regular season reads like a never-ending highlights reel, and includes the W at two of the richest rodeos on the planet—The American, where he won $433,333.33 in February, and the Calgary Stampede, where he earned $108,000 up in Canada in July. For those into bantering about whether or not Kimzey could cut it against PBR cowboys, there was a PBR contingent at both of those rodeos, and you’ll get nothing but mutual respect out of the bull riders themselves on that subject.” - written by Kendra Santos.
“I’m kind of bridging the gap,” Kimzey said. “And I think that’s good for every part of the sport. You have PRCA fans watching the PBR now, and vice-versa. The division is starting to go away, and I think that’s a good thing.”
In the 2019 season, he competed in 92 rodeos and won money in 59, or 64%. He ranks nine percentage points above the second-best percentage – or efficiency in bull riding. Kimzey won 15 bull riding event titles, and 2019 total earnings are logged in his PRCA bank are $245,537.78. He is looking to earn his sixth World Championship. If you are new to the sport, you should know that when he was ten years old, he told 8-time World Champion Donnie Gay that he was going to beat his record…and if you are a betting man in Vegas, it’s considered one of the safest bets in town!
A few things to know when watching Sage Kimzey:
1. It doesn’t matter to him what his bull draw is – he finds a way to hear the whistle while still on their backs.
2. It doesn’t matter to him what anyone else on the roster drew – he rides against himself, not the others on the back of the chutes.
3. Heads up judges and officials – he knows the rules of the sport and the event – probably better than you. He will fight for what is right at all costs, sometimes with and for other cowboys in other events.
4. While it takes money to succeed in rodeo, with Sage, it's all about the personal success. But for the record, he became the youngest millionaire in PRCA history during the 2016 Wrangler NFR, at 22 years, three months and two weeks old.
Sage Kimzey enjoys a minute with rodeo royalty before the Hedeman Fort Worth Challenge Bull Riding
NFR HISTORY
In 2018, he won Round 10, split the win in Round 3, and placed in four rounds to rank fifth in the average at the Wrangler NFR with 347 points on four head. He finished the year at the top of the world standings for the fifth consecutive year with $415,263.
In 2017, he won Rounds 5 and 10, split the win in Round 3, and placed in five rounds to rank first in the average with 601.5 points on seven head. He finished the year ranked first in the world standings with $436,479. 2016:
In 2016, he won Round 1 and placed in five rounds to rank third at the Wrangler NFR and claim his third consecutive world champ title with $311,462.
In 2015, Kimzey placed in seven rounds at the Wrangler NFR to finish second in the average and win his second consecutive world championship with $327,178.
2014 was Kimzey’s rookie season, and he rode for an event-record-tying four rounds of the Wrangler NFR to secure the average title and become the second rookie bull rider to win a gold buckle, following Bill Kornell (1963). His total NFR earnings of $175,466 was the highest of any competitor in Las Vegas, giving him the RAM Truck Top Gun Award and allowing him to finish with a rookie record total (any event or combined) of $318,631.
His first year as a professional was 2013. He set a PRCA record for most money won on a permit in a single season with $47,726. That same year he qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo as a freshman in 2013 and finished fourth. Many industry insiders questioned his decision to leave Panhandle after just one season…for about a minute.