COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Most cowboys recognize the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver as the start of the yearlong road that ends with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo 11 months later.

Although it got under way with two performances last weekend, the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo starts in earnest on Jan. 17 and continues through Jan. 27 at the Denver Coliseum. The nearly 1,000 contestants, including all but one of the newly crowned world champions from the 2007 Wrangler NFR –bull riding champ Wes Silcox of Payson, Utah, won’t be in attendance – will be competing for nearly $500,000 in prize money.

The National Western has been honored three times as the PRCA Indoor Rodeo Committee of the Year in 1997 and 2000-01.

In addition to being one of the highest-paying and most respected PRCA rodeos of the year, the National Western also serves as the second of 26 stops on the 2008 Wrangler ProRodeo Tour. The first stop, the SandHills Stock Show and Rodeo in Odessa, Texas, completed action Jan. 12.

The top 35 competitors from the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour standings in terms of prize money, along with the “Wild Card” qualifiers, champions from March’s Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, will earn a spot in the first Ariat Playoffs event at Caldwell, Idaho.

From there, the top 22 in total Tour money in each event, as well as the Wild Card and the champion from the first Ariat Playoffs event will advance to a 24-person (24 teams in team roping) second playoff event in Puyallup, Wash. The field will then be cut to 12, with those contestants moving on to the next event in Omaha, Neb., then to 10 for the final round in the Playoffs system in Dallas.

The regular-season Tour schedule concludes with the Dodge City (Kan.) Roundup Rodeo in early August.

Denver’s Wrangler Tour round, scheduled for 2 p.m. (MT) Jan. 27, will feature the top 12 cowboys and cowgirls who had the best scores and times in the rodeo’s earlier rounds.

Last year, barrel racer Brittany Pozzi started her run to her “storybook” season that ended with her first world title by winning Denver’s average championship. Several others started their seasons in style, including bareback rider Cleve Schmidt of Belle Fourche, S.D.; steer wrestler Joey Bell Jr. of Malakoff, Texas; team ropers John Robertson of Augusta, Mont./Dustin Bird of Cut Bank, Mont.; saddle bronc rider Brad Harter of Weatherford, Texas; tie-down roper Jake Hannum of Ogden, Utah; and bull rider Tate Stratton of Stanley, N.M.