For the second straight year, Riley Braaten was crowned the winner of the 2024 North American Pony Chuckwagon Championship at Westerner Park on Sunday.
The Archerwill, Sask. native was also named the Dash for Cash $2,500 winner for his time of 76.03 seconds, which was given to the fastest chuckwagon of the day at Westerner Days.
Overall, he had the fastest combined times throughout the five-day event with a total run of 381.19 seconds followed by Marvin Hubl at 382.71 seconds.
"That one felt just about as good as the first one last year," he said. "I had a good one today. I hit my bottom barrel on day three but if I knew I stayed clean for the most part I figured I'd stay ahead of Marvin and hopefully win the show."
Linda Shippelt-Hubl would have taken home the fastest time but she took a penalty which put her behind Braaten.
"It's not the way I wanted to win it," Braaten added. "Lind a got a penalty but that's part of the game. It could have easily gone the other way too," he said.
Braaten was dominant throughout the week recording the fastest time in four of the five days of competition in just his fourth time competing in the event. He gave credit to his horses who performed at the top of their game for the entire week.
"Overall, I can't complain. My horses were good all week, everything worked, and everyone stayed healthy. It was a good week for sure."
At the 2023 North American Pony Chuckwagon Championships, took his first-ever title at the event following a 78.52-second run. In 2022, Braaten finished just behind Reed Rosencrans in the championship race. He competed in his first event in Red Deer in 2016 but was invited back two years ago.
Darren Twerdochlib placed first overall in the chariots with an overall time of 379.47 seconds followed by Kaden Stott who recorded a time of 380.99 seconds.
