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AFTER winning both rounds at the Maleny Rodeo, Beaudesert bull rider Fraser Babbington will start the Northern Run at Taroom on July 19 as one of the form riders in the Australian Professional Rodeo Association.

Babbington has won everything in the APRA, the pro tour last season, the 2013 bull ride title and holds the record for the highest score in more than 60 years of competition.’

Formerly from New Zealand, Babbington has based himself at Tamworth and in South East Queensland during his career with the APRA.

He scored 80 on the Gill Brothers bull River Boy to win round 1 at Maleny and then 73 in round 2.

Babbington won the aggregate at Maleny.

The Northern Run starts at Taroom in Queensland on July 19 and ends at Darwin in the Northern Territory on August 23.

Mt Isa hosts the richest rodeo each year in the APRA and Babbington has the chance to match his performances last year.

He won round 1 in 2013 with a score of 83 on Bad Thing and then the Mt Isa final with 88 on Grasshopper, one of the highest scores of the season.

His success last year at Mt Isa was a major factor in winning the pro tour for most money won in the season.

Babbington won the aggregate last year at Mt Isa by four points from Dingo rider Ryan Storey and the two are likely to start favourites again this year.

Atherton rider Kurt Shepherd only had one place at Mt Isa last year, a fourth in the final, but improved dramatically in the next nine months to win the title at the National Finals Rodeo at Caboolture.

He was the only rider to stay on each of his four bulls at the finals for eight seconds, the next best in a field of 15 rode two bulls.

One of the form bull riders early in the new APRA season is Upper Horton (NSW) cowboy Jackson Gill who was third in round 1 and the aggregate at Maleny and then won at Bowen River at Collinsville on the Queen’s Birthday weekend, the last rodeo in Queensland before the Northern Run starts at Taroom.

In other APRA news, former national bareback finalist Larry Cann is in his second week as APRA rodeo administrator based in Warwick.

He competed in his first national finals in the junior steer ride before winning the second-division bull ride at Warwick as a 17-year-old.

Cann then accepted a rodeo scholarship to America where he spent a decade, branched out into country music and started a successful career as a rodeo announcer. He was in the top 10 in bull riding in 1995 on the Montana Pro Circuit in America.

Before moving to Warwick, he lived in Bundaberg where he worked for 12 years as breakfast announcer/programmer/marketing manager with the Kix Hot Country Radio Network.

Cann has succeeded Steve Hilton who retired from the role after 22 years at the helm of the APRA.

Rodeo Program: July 19 Taroom; July 26 Richmond; August 1-2 Cloncurry; August 8-10 Mt Isa; August 16 Katherine (NT); August 23 Darwin (NT).

More information from APRA on 07 4661 8183

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