Cochrane’s Straws Milan didn’t have a great first four days at the Calgary Stampede.
But that all changed when his time of 3.6 seconds on Wild Card Saturday, July 16, propelled him into Showdown Sunday – where he then ran an identical 3.6 to claim the Stampede’s steer wrestling title and a paycheque of $100,000. In total, he won $109,500.
“It was pretty good to win here, as I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid,” said the 24-year-old and youngest of the three Milan brothers.
Milan, who had times of 6.5, 4.1, no time and 5.0 in the first four days, was the only Canadian to win one of the rodeo’s six major disciplines. His initial Pool B times weren’t good enough to qualify him directly to the final, but he made the most of his second chance on Wild Card Saturday.
“Saturday was the fastest run I had all week and it left me pretty confident going into Sunday’s final,” he said. “I had a good steer on Saturday and another good one on Sunday.”
Milan had the best time – a 3.5 – during the initial final round, at the Stampede Grounds, July 17, earning him the chance to watch each of the other three competitors, during the final four round, before his ultimate ride. Texan Matt Reeves didn’t score a time, California’s Billy Bugenig broke the barrier and Oregon's Trevor Knowles also had a no time.
All Milan, ranked No. 26 in the world, needed to do was clock a time under 13.3 seconds. He knew the pressure normally associated with a final run at the Calgary Stampede – worth $100,000 in front of nearly 25,000 people and a live national television audience – was lessened due to his rivals all failing to render a challenging time.
“I know I didn’t have to be that fast, but it’s still hard,” he said. “I still knew I had to ride out there, get one caught and tip him over. If you leave the box late, you have to run one a long ways and things can only go from bad to worse. When I caught him, I really slowed down and made sure I did things right. It turned out that I was a lot faster than I thought I was.”
Milan hasn’t been resting on his laurels since the Stampede. He travelled to rodeos in Salinas, Calif., Nampa, Idaho, and West Valley, Utah, last week and will head to Austin, Man. this weekend. Translation: he hasn’t decided to spend the money on anything besides getting to more rodeos at this point.
“I'm going to rodeo hard and enter as many rodeos as I can,” he said. “My goal is to qualify for the Wranger National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas later this year. This will keep me going.”
