VICTORIAN rider Cherie O’Donoghue will need to cash in at rodeos in her home state in the next three months if she is going to catch riders from New South Wales and Queensland in the battle for the all around cowgirls pro tour title in the Australian Professional Rodeo Association.
The next Victorian rodeo for O’Donoghue will be the Peter Evison Memorial Rodeo at the Warragul Showgrounds on February 1.
Fifteen of the 29 rodeos in the final three months of the APRA season will be in Victoria which means many of the interstate riders keen to qualify in the top 15 for this year’s National Finals Rodeo will need to travel to Victoria to compete at Warragul.
O’Donoghue, of Lockington, is the reigning all around champion in the APRA and along with Moree rider Wendy Caban has been the most successful cowgirl on the professional circuit in the past decade.
Both are in a small group of women who will contest three events, the barrel race, breakaway roping and team roping.
Team roping is predominately contested by the cowboys but more and more women are joining in the only team event in rodeo.
O’Donoghue is fourth on the standings for the all around pro tour buckle which will be presented to the rider with the most prize money to the end of April.
The current leader is NSW rider Wendy Caban, of Moree, from Stephanie Gard, of Lavington, in southern NSW and Jorja Watkins, of Alton Downs in Central Queensland.
Watkins was the early season leader.
Two of the young guns in the cowgirls ranks, Queenslanders Cheyenne Whitwell and Calla Matthews make up the top six.
Whitwell is from Mt Tarampa in the Lockyer Valley and Matthews from Alton Downs.
This weekend, rodeo action will be in Tasmania and South Australia. On Saturday, APRA riders will head to the Wilmington Rodeo Grounds in South Australia and Batten Park, Ulverstone, in Tasmania and on Sunday to the rodeo ground at Westbury for the Harveydale Rodeo in Tasmania. All three rodeos are for APRA championship points.