General News
5 August, 2025
At long last: Veteran rider claims Ken Coleman prize
Tom Knight had twice finished runner-up in the prestigious saddle bronc event.
Tom Knight was a relieved man on Saturday night after he was able to tick off an important item from his rodeo bucket list at the Curry Merry Muster.
The Gunnedah saddle bronc star has been coming to Cloncurry since he was 18, but the prestigious Ken Coleman Memorial Chute Out has always eluded him.
“It’s actually surreal, it’s unreal,” an elated Knight told North West Weekly.
“I’ve come second here in the Ken Coleman twice now and I thought it was going to happen again for a third time but it feels great to finally win one.”
The 30-year-old rode Whiskey Boy to a score of 85 in the final, which sees the top six bronc riders vie for fame and glory.
The riders are auctioned off prior in a Calcutta and Knight proved to be a bargain buy at $800.
“Whiskey Boy is a great old horse. I’ve got a feeling this is like the 20th time I’ve been on him.
“I love him and he loves me.”
You can’t miss Knight behind the chutes. Standing at 194cm, the New South Welshman is all arms and legs.
But his performance was poetry in motion on Saturday night as he and Whiskey Boy synchronised for eight seconds in front of a big and adoring crowd.
Runner-up was the rising star of the saddle bronc circuit, Bailey O’Dell, who will soon go to the United States to try his hand.
Knight admitted Australia was losing its best bronc riders abroad, with numbers down at Cloncurry.
“The broncs here are getting so good and the rodeos here are getting so good, which means cowboys are getting better and so they are getting the opportunity to go to the States,” he said.
“I spent four or five years over there, too.
“Now I’m old and brittle.”
Knight will now head west and try to win his first Mount Isa Mines Rodeo buckle.