Fierce New BFI Team For ’25: Brazile & Saebens - Bob Feist Invitational

Fierce New BFI Team For ’25: Brazile & Saebens

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One thing the explosion of futurity competition for rope-horse trainers has done is kept some of the best ropers in the world from having full-time partners. That means two former BFI champs – Trevor Brazile and Billie Jack Saebens – will shake out their Cactus and Classic ropes (respectively), and try to win one together this year.

Saebens, 35, is the BFI’s seventh-highest-money earning heeler with $162,750. Duke Dixon has a history of buying Saebens in the BFI calcutta, considering he rides standout Dixon Flowers horses and won the whole shebang three years ago with Jake Clay. But the king of great horses on the other end is surely Brazile.

“One thing about that guy, horsepower-wise, you can never doubt him,” said Saebens. “That’s honestly why he was my first choice.”

As for Saebens, he hopes to again ride the legendary DT Sugar Chex Whiz – an AQHA world champion and 2019 PRCA Heel Horse of the Year that has also become the leading rope-horse producing dam of all-time (two of her embryos have sold for $50,000 and $64,000 apiece). Sugar carried Saebens to the Rickey Green Fast Time award at the 2019 BFI with T. Wade.

“She makes it so easy,” Saebens said. “Trevor and I will put two good horses together in that roping, which makes you think we’ll win it. But you never know! That’s a hard roping to win.”

Brazile knows – he tried for at least 15 years before he clinched victory in 2013 with former champ Patrick Smith. Heck, it took Kaleb Driggers just as many years of trying before he nailed down the latest BFI championship with Junior Nogueira. 

These won’t be the first six steers Brazile and Saebens have roped as a team – they’ve jackpotted a little as second partners. They’ve just never tried it on this big a stage together.

“The stakes are high at the BFI, so there’s an added level of pressure at that roping you don’t get at a lot of places,” Brazile told BFI filmmakers last year. “It has that big-event, big-venue kind of feel, which is fun because there’s not many of those left for us.”

Brazile, 48, gets lured back by the lucrative BFI paycheck and just because he loves the challenging traditions started by Bob Feist in 1977. This roping still boasts the rare enter-once, six-head format and demands high fees to rope over a very long score. Brazile won 14 gold all-around buckles that say he’s the best “cowboy” on them – and the BFI is a cowboy roping.

“I don’t know if we’ll get together and practice, or if we’ll even talk about the roping,” said Saebens. “I just know he’s going to be riding a good horse and turn them as soon as he catches up.”

These two spend a lot of time on the backs of colts, so they’re looking forward to getting back in the arena with the best ropers – and horses – in the world, in an arena made for it.

“The Lazy E is the best venue we have,” said Saebens. “Especially for a setup like the BFI. It just feels so good to rope there – the ground’s good and it’s just set up for the BFI. I’m so glad they brought it there and kept it there.”

Tickets for the 2025 Feist will go on sale February 14th, so be sure to mark your calendar! Entries are currently open, so don’t miss your chance to be part of this exciting event. Make your stay even more memorable by reserving your room at our host hotel, Hilton Garden Inn Edmond, today!

Julie Mankin

Wyoming native Julie Mankin has roped for three decades, and in her 25-year career as a former newspaper editor, PRCA publicist and freelance writer, her work has been published in Western Horseman, American Cowboy, AQHA Journal, True West, Cowboys & Indians and more.