Contractor and retired software engineer split $130K

Glenn Bailey from Howell, Texas, and Wylie Platt from Denison won the 8.5 Roping by six full seconds to go back to Texas with the biggest roping paychecks of their lives.

They’d bested 525 teams on three to become high callback, but the big money played havoc on minds in the short round, so the 11 teams prior to them all had no-times or single-leg penalties. The 16^th callback was still winning the roping (and wound up second for $88,000).

“Anytime I try to safety up, I mess up,” said Bailey, who makes it a habit of not watching the team in front of him. “I knew we just had to be 14, but I went after that steer just like I did the first steer.”

Bailey and Platt capitalized with a run of 8.26 – but it almost wasn’t to be when Platt’s first attempt at a dally didn’t take.

“A lot of times, the way she stops I don’t get a second chance for a wrap, but today she let me have a second chance,” Platt said of his mare Miracle Moon that he raised and hired Rhett Nelson to train. “I wasn’t turning loose of that rope. Didn’t matter if my hand was in it or my thumb was in it – I wasn’t turning loose.”

They got the flag and the win paid them $130,000 plus Cactus saddles, Gist buckles and Justin boots. They had also placed in the fifth rotation.

“They had the barrier set up really good – if you saw the steer move an eyelash, you were clean,” said Bailey. “It was great. They also had some great cattle. We got lucky and drew two steers that let us be 6 and 7.”

In addition, Bailey and Platt won the 7.5 Incentive for another $4,500 per man, with their three-head total of 23.3 seconds. Bailey and Pratt left Guthrie with $142,000 total.

“This is kind of like Vegas, but right here in the backyard,” said Platt, 59. “It doesn’t cost near as much, but you can still win a lot of money. My wife and I have been here since Saturday. We watched the BFI and just hung out.”

They raised three sons and own Platt Welding and Construction, which began with fencing and barns but evolved into the structural steel contracted to build 20,000-square-foot homes.

“He doesn’t miss very often,” Platt said of Bailey. “Nine out of 10 times, he’ll turn you four steers at any roping. And he rides good horses.”

Bailey had bought his bay horse, Bully, off the internet for a thousand bucks as a 3-year-old that was not halter-broke, and did all the work himself. The horse is 12 now, and Bailey bought his full brother, too.

“I love that horse on fast cattle – he can make up time if I miss the start or a steer splits the gates,” he said.

The grandfather of 15, just about to turn 72 years old, said he hadn’t won a check for a couple of months and was getting frustrated.

“We have a local Wednesday night jackpot, and they’ve been kicking my teeth in for weeks now,” Bailey said. “Finally, it clicked and it clicked at the right time.”

The next morning, Bailey said he was still “walking about six inches off the ground.” He retired nine years ago from developing software at Texas Instruments, where he led teams working in Japan, Germany, Taiwan and China. In fact, he called Shanghai his second home because he spent so much time there.

Bailey was lowered to a 3.5 header after he turned 70 – but this is no ordinary retiree. To stay in shape for roping and because he says it’s fun, he runs. Bailey has competed in the Great Wall of China marathon twice and Pikes Peak Marathon about 10 times. Just for the record, that’s over 26 miles. But he’s also done 100K races of more than 60 miles each – and the last one was just two years ago.

He learned to rope back in the 1980s when someone at Texas Instruments posted a notice on the bulletin board that he was giving roping lessons for fifty bucks. And Bailey’s USTRC number was one of the early ones – 2371. In more recent years, he attended a Speed Williams school and took lessons a few times from Kevin Stewart.

“I love BFI Week because I see people I met years and years ago – guys I remember roping with in my 20s,” he said.