Ryder Wright posted a day-winning 91.5 ride on Suspicious Minds in saddle bronc at the Calgary Stampede on Saturday, July 11, 2026, setting the stage for a potential double Wright victory on Showdown Sunday.
Brothers in the Spotlight
The Wright brothers, Stetson and Ryder, are among the favorites to win their respective events at GMC Stadium on the final day. Stetson competes in bull riding, while Ryder leads in saddle bronc. A double championship would be a first for the family at the Calgary Stampede.
Ryder, 28, reflected on the possibility: “We’ve never done that here. I don’t know if I’ve ever even been here with Stetson, actually. One year in 2019, me, Rusty, and (uncle) Spencer all made the four rounds, so three of the four were Wrights (in the saddle bronc finale), so that was pretty cool. But that’d be a fairy-tale ending to the awesome week it’s been here so far if we both win.”
Family Rivalry and Support
The Wrights have a history of success at the Stampede: Rusty won in 2019, a year after Ryder’s victory. A double win in a single rodeo would be unprecedented. Ryder emphasized their healthy rivalry: “It’s always been a healthy rivalry, for sure. You know … we push each other to be better, and I think that’s why we’ve had so much success. It just fuels my fire when they do good — it makes me want to do good. We’re always just feeding off each other, and it seems like one of us is always doing good. So we always got that to look up to.”
Ryder also noted their honesty: “And we’ll tell somebody when they’re doing something wrong and not sugarcoat it to make them feel good. So we always push each other to do our best. So I attribute a lot of our success to that.”
Ryder’s Dominant Week
Ryder topped Pool C with the week’s best ride on Saturday, following a shared first-place payout with Kade Bruno on Thursday (88.5 each) and a 90-point win on Friday. He said, “Hopefully, just keep the ball rolling till (Sunday) afternoon. Hopefully, I can do good first, and we can get his motor rolling — get Stetson ready for the bull riding.”
Tie-Down Revenge
Macon Murphy, who narrowly lost the tie-down roping title to Montana’s Haven Meged in a previous year, is set for his revenge attempt on Showdown Sunday.
