A lot riding on the Gilbert Days Rodeo

When the Gilbert Days Rodeo leaves the chute Friday, it won’t just be a big deal for the town. It will be many professional cowboys’ last chance to advance in this year’s season standings.

“It’s Gilbert’s signature event,” Town Councilman Steve Urie said, “just like the Ostrich Festival is for Chandler.”

For 30 years, the rodeo has been part of Gilbert Days, an annual weeklong series of events celebrating the town’s equestrian heritage.

For most of those years, the rodeo has galloped along on a former landfill leased to the town by Maricopa County near Val Vista Drive and Ray Road.

Last year, the rodeo alone attracted about 7,500 people. Organizers estimate nearly 10,000 people a day visited the carnival that sets up each year next to the rodeo arena.

And for the last 20 years, the event has been organized by Ed Musgraves, a grocery clerk who takes a week of vacation from his job each year to concentrate on the rodeo.

“Sometimes it can be challenging,” Musgraves said with a grin while overseeing volunteers putting up a corral where child contestants will be riding sheep this weekend.

The rodeo, along with the rest of the Gilbert Days festivities, is put on each year by Gilbert Promotional Corp., a nonprofit group formed in the late 1970s to promote the town and the annual event.

Gilbert’s rodeo is unusual in that it’s among the last events of the season before the International Rodeo Finals scheduled for January in Oklahoma City, put on by the International Professional Rodeo Association, which sanctions the Gilbert event.

“So there’s more pressure on some of the contestants to do well there,” said association general manager Dale Yerigan, himself an 11-time world champion steer wrestler. “You get a mix of people who are toward the top of the standings and trying to win a world championship, and you get the people who are on the bubble, so to speak, to qualify for the (International Rodeo Finals).”

Yerigan, who will attend this weekend’s rodeo, said just about every event this year has at least one contestant within striking distance of advancing.

“This could make all the difference,” he said.

Urie has for years pushed for a town equestrian center to host large events, such as the Gilbert Rodeo.

The rodeo’s future at its current site is uncertain because of environmental issues associated with being on top of a landfill, Urie said.

“That’s the reason why I pursued the special events venue and equestrian center,” he said.

Voters have already approved $10 million to purchase land for the facility, which could cost as much as $30 million.

“With the economy the way it is, this could be an excellent time to buy real estate,” Urie said.

Gilbert Days Rodeo

Friday: Gates open 5 p.m., rodeo begins at 7 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday: Gates open at noon, rodeo begins at 2 p.m.

Cost: Adults $15, children and seniors $10.

For more information, visit www.gilbertdays.com.