Woolbrook’s Gerard Oversby and Willow Tree’s Nichole Fitzpatrick were proclaimed the ABCRA’s best cowboy and cowgirl on Saturday night.
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Oversby won the coveted All Round Cowboy title while Fitzpatrick showed she is in a class of her own by finishing on top in the All Round Cowgirl standings for an astonishing sixth straight year.
Even a broken wrist couldn’t stop the 32-year old as she rode her way to a seventh national steer undecorating title and secured her first barrel racing national champion buckle.
“I’ve won an APRA (Australian Professional Rodeo Association) barrel racing title but never an ABCRA one,” Fitzpatrick said.
She’s been close, finishing runner-up the previous four years.
She was unbeatable going into the finals, enjoying a $15,000 lead over her closest rival after a dominant year around the barrels.
The situation was slightly different in the steer undecorating. She still had some work to do with Candice Parkinson shading her by less than $1000 and over $1500 on offer over the three nights.
Also still in contention for the breakaway roping title, Fitzpatrick almost didn’t make the finals.
“The first of December I broke my arm,” she said.
The injury required surgery and pins, and limited her lead-up to the finals.
“I only got my cast off 10 days ago,” she said.
She’d started trotting on her horse about a week before but with the injury to her roping arm, didn’t pick up a rope until a few days before the finals.
“I really wanted to ride at the finals,” she said.
“It’s a lot of fun and I just wanted to be here.”
So much so she did physio from the day she got her cast on to keep up her strength ready for when it came off.
That hard work paid off with Fitzpatrick adding the National Finals all round, steer undecorating and barrel racing champion buckles to her already extensive collection.
“I was happy with how I went,” she said.
“The first night I had a really good night, I placed in all three events.”
The second night she won the steer undecorating, but “got a leg in the roping”.
Fitzpatrick’s barrel racing horse Just A Busy Cat was also named the barrel racing horse of the year.
