By meadowlakeNOW

Logan Gorst makes Calgary Stampede top three

Jul 17, 2017 | 3:10 PM

Meadow Lake’s Logan Gorst had a busy 10 days of chuckwagon racing at the Calgary Stampede. Heading into Sunday’s finals at the GMC Rangeland Derby Championship, Gorst was sitting in first place. Even though he fell short of winning the top spot, placing fourth in the final run, he said this year’s experience was a positive one.

“You have a goal of making the dash so when we made it I was happy, just didn’t finish it off,” he said. “The tough part is actually getting there. It’s kind of a marathon, between racing six days in Ponoka and coming up to Calgary with only three days off, then you run for 10, it’s a big barn management thing.”

The winner of the final, and the $100,000 cash prize was Kurt Bensmiller, who has won three out of the last four years. Gorst ended up second overall in the aggregate points total at the Stampede.

While he really would have liked to taken the top spot, he is happy with the overall performance.

“We ran consistent, I just tried to stay as clean as possible,” Gorst said. “The horses came pretty good at the end of the show. I was fifth in Ponoka and second in the aggregate here. If you would have told me that at the start of Ponoka, I’d shake your hand and be happy with it.”

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He, and the rest of the Gorst family are always thankful for the support both from each other and their home community.

“It’s really good to have the family around,” he said. “I’m so grateful for the people that got me here. I used to run tarp called Logan Heroes, and there was a lot of families that helped me when I was first starting. They’re not forgotten, they helped me get to where I am. And the community – it’s crazy. I had to shut my phone off that night, there was people texting and so many phone calls. Meadow Lake can come together when they see a person from that community do well.”

Gorst, and the other drivers from the World Professional Chuckwagon Association have a bit of a break now before their next set of races in Bonnyville.

“For the stretch we went through and how good the horses ran for me it’ll be nice to give them eight days off,” he said. I’ll turn them out for two days and let them freshen up, and we’ll come running in Bonnyville.

Gorst said he’s already looking forward to next year’s Calgary Stampede, and said he’ll be focussing on the rest of the WPCA season.

“It’s going to be hard waiting another 365 days to have another crack at this, to be honest,” he said. “But we’ll try to be there next year.”

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath