(Submitted photo/Layne MacGillivray, Shellie Scott Photography)

By Ben Tompkins

Cowboys Rangeland Derby

Layne MacGillivray finishes second at Calgary Stampede

Jul 17, 2024 | 2:58 PM

Melfort native, Layne MacGillivray came up just short in his title defence in Calgary this past weekend.

The former World Champion Chuckwagon Racer was trying to win the 2024 Calgary Stampede Cowboys Rangeland Derby and just missed out on doing so by less than two seconds.

“It was a good solid week for us, we didn’t get some of the results that we had hoped, but we were staying consistent and staying clean, and we managed to get into the championship dash,” MacGillivray told northeastNOW.

“We managed to get into third place and hang onto it after the round-robin, and then ended up second place overall.”

MacGillivray and his horses ran a time of 1:13:46 in the championship heat, while Jason Glass and his horses ran a time of 1:11:55 for the win, dethroning MacGillivray as the former champion in the process.

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Despite MacGillivray coming in as the defending champ, he said he didn’t feel any added pressure during the week.

“Honestly not at all, I wasn’t trying to add any pressure to myself, I just wanted to stay focused and take it one day at a time. The Stampede is a marathon, not a sprint, so take each day and see what the horses bring, and try to do it penalty free.”

Along with finishing in second place, MacGillivray was the recipient of the Richard Cosgrave Aggregate/Safety Award, which came with a $25,000 cheque.

MacGillivray attributes the past week to what he views as a fairly good season so far.

“It’s been going pretty good, I think we’re sitting third in our association right now. There’s been a few barrels that have cost us some big runs, but we’re taking our horses home here now and we’ll give them a break and a refresher, and we” get back out there in another 10 days and that’ll finish our season, so hopefully it goes well for us,” he added.

Another northeast product that was recognized during the week was Wade Salmond, whose horse ‘Wizard’ was part of the Stampede’s Equine Athlete of Excellence.

Salmond is from Weekes (just east of Porcupine Plain) and was the Top Rookie Award winner last year.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8