Harris, Branquinho in top spots in world standings Round 7 win at NFR

Fellow bull riders and steer wrestlers beware: two-time World Champions J.W. Harris and Luke Branquinho are red hot. Harris, of Mullin, Texas, won the bull riding for the third straight night at the 2010 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and for the fourth time in seven rounds, and Branquinho won for the third time – and second in a row – in front of 17,132 at the Thomas & Mack Center. Both cowboys took over the top spots in their respective events thanks to their Round 7 victories at the $5.875 million rodeo. Harris’ win came thanks to a rodeo-best 94.5-point ride aboard Frontier Rodeo’s Smoke Screen, and he is the only bull rider to have covered six bulls at this year’s Finals. Wrangler NFR rookie Tyler Smith was second in Round 7 with a score of 89 points. Branquinho, of Los Alamos, Calif., took over the No.1 spot in the PRCA World Standings in the process. Branquinho, who won world titles in 2004 and 2008, won Round 7 with a rodeo-best 3.3-second run, one-tenth of a second faster than Trevor Knowles and two-tenths of a second faster than Cody Cassidy. He also won a share of first place in Round 2 and took Round 6. Branquinho now leads the PRCA World Standings with $143,667 after earning an event-best $53,525, while Knowles moved from fifth to second with $130,035 thanks to his runner-up finish. Round 7 was an exciting one in the steer wrestling, with the lead changing three times in the last four runs. Branquinho was last to nod his head, and he made the most of it...more