New Dad Cody Rostockyj Chutes For The Stars
BY MELISSA MOORMAN
I
t’s been a great year for bull rider
Cody Rostockyj, who is currently
in third place going into the 2015
Championship Bull Riding (CBR)
World Finals at Cheyenne Frontier
Days.
Cody is also this year’s CBR
Horizon Champion, and while he’s
thankful for that, he’s got much more
to be thankful for when he heads to
Wyoming this year. Cody and his
wife, Tomile, just had a baby girl,
and she is bringing his baby daughter
and his three-year-old son with her to
Cheyenne. This will be the first time
Cody has seen his daughter since right
after she was born.
“My wife is going to bring
both kids up and then my son is
staying with me. It will be really
fun. Everywhere we go there is
something new to see,” he said.
When I spoke with him, Rostockyj
was in Idaho heading to another
rodeo and had no idea how many
miles he had driven so far this
summer. “I’ve been to 15 states in just
a month with a lot more to go,” said
Rostockyj. “I love the traveling. I like
to see new things and new places. I
don’t like not seeing my family, but
it’s only a couple months a year.”
Rostockyj has been riding bulls
for 10 years and participating in
professional rodeos for six or seven.
“With me it kind of worked out. I
won a scholarship to Hill College,”
he said. There he met his wife, who
was the rodeo coach’s daughter. “She
knows the business and it’s a lot easier
to explain to someone who knows the
business,” he said.
Cody Rostockyj finished 12th in
the CBR World Standings last year
and is 344.5 points behind Sage
Steele Kimzey who is in second place.
“Sittin’ third in there with just the
finals left. I have a shot,” Rostockyj
said.
Although he hasn’t won a televised
event this year, he has been to the
Final Four Shootout Round on three
occasions. This year he has eight top10 finishes with a runner-up finish
in Lufkin and fourth-place finishes in
both Bossier City and Fort Worth. He’s
had some impressive scores on some
impressive bulls this season. Rostockyj
has ridden 44 percent (11 for 25) of
his bulls at televised events, and three
of those have resulted in 90 points
or more. His high-marked ride of the
season came in Fort Worth where
he rode perennial Bull of the Year
contender Corpus Red for 92.5 points.
He also rode Footloose for 91 points
in El Paso to a seventh-place finish.
The winner of the Horizon’s Series
wins a $20,000 bonus check for the
title. “I won that horizon series. That’s
a good deal. Once you get on tour
you don’t have to go. I get to collect
that check next weekend,” Rostockyj
said. He chose to participate in the
Horizon series even though he didn’t
have to. “You don’t have to do it, but
I chose to. When you do go to them,
you can win $4,000-$5,000 in a
weekend. Some people might bat an
eyelash at that, but I won’t. I have two
kids,” he said. When asked, Rostockyj
said he would be buying his wife a
new car when they return home with
his winnings. But if he wins the CBR
World title, he said he would pay off
his house. That’s just what a good dad
would do.
Championship Bull Riding brings you The REAL Cowboy
Sport on FOX every Sunday.
Each show is one hour long and features the stops from the
2015 “The Mahindra Road to Cheyenne” Tour.
Aug 9 38th Annual George Paul Memorial Bull Riding
Del Rio, TX
Aug 16 2015 CBR World Finals at Cheyenne Frontier Days - Day One
Cheyenne, WY
Aug 23 2015 CBR World Finals at Cheyenne Frontier Days - Day Two
Cheyenne, WY
AUGUST 2015
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
Full schedule is available at www.cbrbull.com/tv_listings.html
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Photo by Todd Brewer
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