Stetson Wright Is Chasing a Triple Crown. He's Already $200,000 Ahead of the Field.

Two years ago, a horse named Wild Valley threw Stetson Wright into the dirt at the 2023 NFR and Wright came up with a right hamstring so badly torn it took surgery and most of 2024 to fix. He sat out a full season. When he came back at the end of 2025, he closed the year with a record single-season earnings total of $817,088, his tenth PRCA world championship, and a quote that has stuck around. “All this did tonight,” he said in the wake of a 2025 NFR round, “I’m thinking 2026 and I want that triple crown.”

The triple crown means winning the All-Around, the Saddle Bronc, and the Bull Riding world titles in the same year. Trevor Brazile did a version of it at the peak of his run. No one has matched what Wright is asking of himself in the specific combination of roughstock events he competes in. Through Sunday, April 19, Wright has $201,996 on the 2026 season. Wacey Schalla of Arapaho, Oklahoma, the next closest cowboy on the All-Around standings, has $102,543. The lead is almost exactly double.

Wright’s March is the reason.

At RodeoHouston he drew a saddle bronc named Womanizer in the championship round and covered him for 89 points. That ride took the saddle bronc title at the stadium format and paid $65,000 on its own. He also rode in the bull-riding bracket at Houston and cashed $26,000 there. His Houston weekend alone was $97,250 in total earnings, a single-rodeo haul most cowboys don’t hit in a full year.

San Antonio earlier in March paid him $42,229 in the bull-riding event. He entered Rodeo Austin in late March and stayed in the bracket. His event splits as of the end of March: $134,118 in saddle bronc, $42,229 in bull riding. Zero in bareback, which he doesn’t ride. The All-Around number works because Wright is chasing two events at world-title level simultaneously. Most cowboys pick one and try to win it. Wright is trying to win two, and he’s trying to do it in the same year he wins the All-Around for the seventh time.

The family context is worth parking for a minute. Cody Wright, Stetson’s father, won the saddle bronc world title in 2008 and again in 2010. Jesse Wright, Stetson’s uncle, took the saddle bronc title in 2012. Spencer Wright, another uncle, won it in 2014. Stetson’s brothers Rusty, Ryder, and Statler are all active on the 2026 circuit in saddle bronc. At the 2025 NFR, the three of them finished 1, 2, and 3 in the saddle bronc world standings. Statler won by $346 over Ryder. Across the family, the Wrights have 18 PRCA world championships between the brothers, uncles, and father. The practice pen is behind the family ranch in Milford, Utah. Stetson’s mother ShaRee Wright has been running the family’s rodeo logistics for twenty-five years.

Stetson’s own career ledger: ten PRCA gold buckles, six All-Around titles between 2019 and 2025, three bull-riding world titles, one saddle bronc world title. At the end of 2025 he became the second cowboy in PRCA history to cross $4 million in career earnings. The first was Trevor Brazile, the 24-time champion who set the ceiling.

What makes the 2026 run different is the context. Wright is 26 years old, two years removed from a season-killing injury, and his body is back in rhythm. The 89 at Houston was, by the room’s measure, the ride of the winter. Womanizer is a Pete Carr saddle bronc with a reputation for kicking hard on the second jump and pulling forward through the third; Wright stayed over his feet through the whole trip and spur-stroked on rhythm. Then he rode his bull in the same week. Then he got on a plane to San Antonio and won the bull riding there.

What’s on his calendar from here: the five-year PRCA pattern. Reno in mid-June. Cowboy Christmas first week of July (Cody, Greeley, St. Paul, Prescott). Calgary July 3 through 12 in the tournament bracket. Cheyenne July 17 through 26, which moved to a qualifying format in 2026 for the first time, eliminating traditional slack. Salinas. Pendleton in September. Cinch Playoffs in Sioux Falls first week of October. Wrangler NFR December 3 through 12 in Las Vegas.

Between now and the Cinch Playoffs cut date, Wright will probably earn another $400,000 to $500,000 if he stays healthy. That would put him at $600,000 or more heading into Vegas. The world title in the All-Around has historically been settled in December based on the NFR round-by-round payouts and the aggregate. Wright entering the NFR with a $500,000 regular-season lead over second in the All-Around would be close to unassailable.

Bull riding is where it gets interesting. Wright currently sits seventh in the 2026 bull riding standings with $42,229. The world lead in that event is several hundred thousand dollars above him because of the Houston and San Antonio winners in that bracket. To catch them, Wright would need to cover ten bulls in ten NFR rounds at December-NFR scores, something only a handful of bull riders in history have done. That’s the triple crown’s hard part.

The saddle bronc side is already nearly locked. Wright is fewer than $50,000 off the current world lead in that event. Cowboy Christmas week pays enough in saddle bronc money to flip it.

So: a seventh All-Around, a second saddle bronc, a fourth bull riding. That’s what Wright is asking of 2026. He’s ahead of the field by a hundred grand at the one-third mark of the season. The number he’s chasing after this is not Trevor Brazile’s 24. That’s further away than it looks. What Wright is chasing is the triple crown, and no cowboy in the modern era has pulled it off in his specific combination of events.

Watch Reno in June. That’s the first test. If Wright cashes there in both roughstock events, the triple crown chase is live all summer.

The field is $100,000 behind and running out of road.