By Laurence Heinen
It wasn’t the way Chance Flad wanted to win his first-ever World Professional Chuckwagon Association show, but he’ll take it.
Flad was crowned champion of the 2025 Wainwright Stampede after unsafe racetrack conditions due to inclement weather that started on Friday cancelled last Sunday’s final night of competition.
“Nothing you can do, but it worked out, that’s for sure,” said Flad, who guided his Hall & Company Professional Chartered Accountants outfit to a fourth-place showing on Friday and an even-better second-place performance the next night with Nolan Cameron and Trey MacGillivray as his outriders.
Flad’s two-day aggregate time of 2:11.16 put him just 48/100ths of a second ahead of Kris Molle, who won the Wainwright Stampede in 2018 when the meet was a Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association show.
Born in nearby Macklin, Sask., Flad had never competed in Wainwright before.
“Wainwright was kind of like a hometown show, I guess you could say,” said the 33-year-old reinsman, who went to school in Hughendon and then worked for a spell in Veteran, a pair of municipalities south of Wainwright. “The stands were packed there the two nights that we ran. They had good turnout.”
Heading into the Ponoka Stampede, which runs from Thursday through Canada Day, and the Cowboys Rangeland Derby during the Calgary Stampede (July 4-13), Flad can build upon the success he had in Wainwright.
“It’s a conference booster, that’s for sure,” said Flad, who now resides in Arrowwood, Alta., with his wife Brittany and their two-year-old son Wylder. “Just things worked out. The luck of the draw and stuff, too. I’ve got one outfit really working nicely and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
Flad’s main outfit, which is comprised of right leader Palm, left leader Deuce, right wheeler Mo and left wheeler Buster, ran on both nights in Wainwright.
“I went with the one outfit,” said Flad, who was hoping to debut a new lead team he recently acquired on the third night of action in Wainwright. “I was kind of excited for the last night I just traded a couple horses, actually (to) Luke Tournier. I was just excited to see what they were going to do. I haven’t got to drive them yet because of the weather and stuff, but it is what it is.”
Seeing as how he had 13 new horses in his barn this year, Flad decided to make a mid-season trade with Tournier to acquire some more-seasoned equine athletes.
“Yeah, I traded a couple greener ones that haven’t been in a race yet for apparently a lead team, but I don’t really know yet,” said Flad, who’s planning on using those new horses – Doc on right lead and Chloe on left lead – on Thursday’s opening night of racing in Ponoka.
“They’ll be going the first night here,” said Flad, who’ll be one of three drivers named Chance competing in the third heat.
The others are Chance Bensmiller and Chance Thomson, while Todd Baptiste will take his chances as the Todd-man out, so to speak, in Heat 3.
Currently sitting in 25th spot in the WPCA’s driver standings, Flad is hoping to build upon his recent accomplishments.
“It’s a tough, tough group of drivers, so just to get higher up in the standings is our goal,” he said.
The WPCA’s Top Rookie Driver in 2019 is also looking forward to competing at the Calgary Stampede for the second straight year.
“You need lots of horses,” said Flad of the key to having success at the 10-day Rangeland Derby. “You’ve got to have a deep barn. And consistency is a big thing. We did 10 days penalty free there, which I thought was a pretty good improvement there last year. It’s pretty hard to go 10 days penalty free there.”
