As heard on 96.5 The Ranch, Riley Braaten is continuing to very successfully chew up the track at Westerner Park in Red Deer.
Braaten had the fastest time for the second straight night to kick off the 2025 North American Pony Chuckwagon Championships. He surpassed his time of 80.60 seconds on Wednesday with a 78.36 on Thursday in Heat 8.
Braaten is the two-time defending champ at the event and the Archerwill, Saskatchewan product is first in the aggregate standings with a 158.96. Vegreville’s Dwayne Dubuc is second with a 159.45 and Philip Arcand is third with a 160.68. Dubuc was second on Night 2 with a 78.78 and Arcand was third with a 78.86.
Meanwhile, the chariot to beat so far at Westerner Days belongs to Darren Twerdoclib from Viking. He dashed out to the quickest time of the week with a 77.69 in Heat 6 on Thursday.
Twerdoclib’s total running time through two nights is 158.04 which has him just ahead of Cassie O’Connor’s 158.14. O’Connor was second fastest on Thursday with a 79.47 and that was just a bit slower than the 78.67 she opened the show with on Wednesday.
96.5 The Ranch will have live coverage of all of the action throughout the week. Tune in for Night 3 on Friday at about 5:15pm. Saturday is also an evening performance before the Dash for Cash wraps things up for 2025 in Red Deer on Sunday afternoon.
