2024 World Champion Barrel Race Kassie Mowry

By Patrick Everson

It all came down to the final round, and even more so, literally down to tenths of a second. That’s how close the 2024 WPRA barrel racing world championship battle was, between Hailey Kinsel and Kassie Mowry.

On Saturday night, whomever rode faster would grab the gold buckle. Mowry sped to a time of 13.59 seconds, good for a second-place check worth $26,624. Kinsel, looking for her fifth world title, was at 13.97.

And that told the story of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and the 2024 season. Mowry, who won five consecutive go-rounds this week (Nights 4-8), also earned $40,751 by taking fourth in the NFR average. Across the past 10 days, Mowry landed a massive $295,526.

That gave the Dublin, Texas, cowgirl a total of $457,809 for the season. Kinsel was second at $430,353 – a difference of $27,456. So basically, the difference was the money Mowry earned for taking second in the final go.

The championship brought a positive end to an extremely difficult year for Mowry, whose fiancé, Michael Boone, passed away in June.

“That horse gave me a reason to go out my front door a lot of days,” she said of her speedy steed Jarvis. “That horse just wouldn’t let me come home. He kept winning. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime horse for me.”

Mowry’s lone goal was just to get to Las Vegas. She never imagined being at the pinnacle of barrel racing after 10 rounds of the Wrangler NFR.

“I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high,” Mowry said. “The goal was getting here, and that was it. I never thought of anything past that. Everything else was a bonus. This was a heck of a bonus.”

Andrea Busby won the NFR average as the only barrel racer with 10 clean runs, with no barrels tipped over. Her elapsed time was 136.18 seconds, good for an $86,391 check. That vaulted Busby to No. 3 in the final world standings at $343,706.