Beisel and Liza Get the Win in Historic Round 6 at the Wrangler NFR

By Ann Bleiker

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – While most have become used to seeing Emily Beisel on the grey gelding known as Chongo at the Wrangler NFR she made headlines on Wednesday morning, December 13, at the Wrangler NFR with a round win on Ivory On Fire known as Liza.

Liza is a 7-year-old mare that carried Beisel to the Governor’s Cup Championship in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at the end of the season and has proven she belongs on Beisel’s A-team. Following the first performance Beisel’s main mount Chongo came down with an infection and has been recovering while Liza has stepped up in rockstar fashion.

“She hasn’t given me a reason to get off of her and it is allowing Chongo more time to recover,” said Beisel. “She has been placing…to get fourth in three rounds out here especially in a place she has never been to before, it is tough and something even Chongo had to work hard for. She was doing it pretty effortlessly and gave me confidence to stay on her.

            “You can come out here with the best game plan, which I thought I had and that all changed after the first round and I had to adapt quickly. You just have to be flexible.”

            Round six was held at 10 a.m. PST as the make-up round for the postponed Thursday, December 7 night performance due to the shooting that happened on the campus of UNLV on December 6 during contestant grand entry rehearsal. This is the first time in the 65-year history of the NFR to have a double-header, but Beisel is now ready for another round win tonight during the seventh performance.

            “My family was still sitting in the same spot as I wasn’t sure where they would be but as I got down to the far end they were standing up hooping and hollering so that was cool,” Beisel said about the victory lap during the historic performance. “It was a little easier to find them.”

            This was Beisel’s third time in her career to win the sixth round at the NFR. Her first coming when the NFR moved to Arlington, Texas, for 2020 due to COVID, the second time in 2022 and now another historic sixth round in 2023.

Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi who leads the world and average made a horse change for the sixth round and she brought her 12-year-old mare Babe On The Chase “Birdie” down the alleyway. Although they didn’t place in the round, Birdie turned in a safe run to keep Pozzi Tonozzi atop the average leaderboard with 82.17 seconds on six runs. She is not only looking to add her third gold buckle to her trophy case but also a third NFR average title. Her previous average titles came in 2006 and 2007 and previous world titles were 2007 and 2009.

            The second performance of today’s double-header will take place at 5:45 p.m. PST and mark the seventh round. It will be LIVE on the Cowboy Channel.

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Rd. 6 results: https://www.wpra.com/nfr-2023-results-wednesday-december-13-2023/