Dysart rider hits form in run up to this week’s Mt Isa Mines Rotary Rodeo.

DYSART rider Sonny Schafferius is one of the favourites for the bull ride at the Mt Isa Mines Rotary Rodeo after winning the open event at the Cloncurry Merry Muster.

Cloncurry is always the lead up event to the Mt Isa rodeo, the richest in the Australian Professional Rodeo Association. The Mt Isa Rodeo starts Friday and the action in all eight events will finish on Sunday (12-14 August).

Schafferius was one of a number of Queensland winners at Cloncurry.

He has drawn the bull Mud Slide in the first section of the open bull ride at Mt Isa on Friday.

Many of the top chances are in the first section.

Reigning APRA champion Troy Wilkinson will be on Trouble Soul while past world rookie bull ride champion Brad Pierce will aim for a winning ride on Jimmy Choo on Friday.

Ryan Storey from Central Queensland is on Special Force.

Last year, Northern Territory rider Mark Lamberth won at Mt Isa and will get his chance in the first round on Friday riding Chickasaw. 

Clermont cowboy Clayton Braden won the saddle bronc at Cloncurry from last year’s Mt Isa winner Michael Maher, of Warwick. The pair will be two of the riders to beat at Mt Isa along with current APRA champion Brad Pierce from Tooma in New South Wales.

Townsville rider Campbell Hodson won the rope and tie at Cloncurry against a top field, including Emerald cowboy Shane Kenny, the most successful cowboy in APRA history. Shane was fifth in the rope and tie and his younger brother Kacey second.

Nominations are up at the Mt Isa Rodeo this year from 618 to 658.

Cloncurry open winners:

Saddle bronc - Clayton Braden (Clermont, Qld)

Bull ride - Sonny Schafferius (Dysart, Qld)

Bareback - Ben Hall (Tumbarumba, NSW)

Rope and tie – Campbell Hodson (Townsville, Qld)

Steer wrestling – Andrew Jansen (Comet, Qld)

Team roping – Ben Smith (Moonbi, NSW) and Blake Hallum (Calala, NSW)

Barrel racing – Jo Caldwell (Murrurundi, NSW)

Breakaway – Teal Ayers (Roma, Qld)