By Laurence Heinen
Chanse Vigen mixed things up a bit and still came away with his second Battle of the Foothills title in four years.
The 40-year-old chuckwagon driver from Grande Prairie, Alta., was pleased he was able to use some of his newer horses during the four-day show in High River, while also being able to rest many of his veterans.
“That’s probably what I’m post proud about,” Vigen told Arnie Jackson after adding a second Battle of the Foothills championship to the one he won in 2021. “We got a couple new horses started and a couple in some new positions. To come out with the win, I was pleasantly surprised.”
Vigen’s four-day aggregate time of 5:05.37 was 1.48 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Obrey Motowylo and his The Co-operators/Crawford Insurance Group outfit.
Vigen started out the show last Thursday by hooking Greyson and Junior as his lead team with Laser and Sacramento running as his wheelers and the his Volker Stevin/Glover International Trucks outfit rewarded him with a quick day-money run of 1:16.00. Rory Armstrong threw stove for him and rode Emmett, while fellow outrider Ethan Motowylo held his leaders and then hopped atop Coco before racing around the track.
For the second and third days, Vigen took a gamble and moved veteran wheeler Tex up to his lead team with Max, while Alfie and first-year horse Foley worked as his wheelers. Armstrong performed his usual job of throwing stove while riding Lucky, while Motowylo held leaders with Donald.
On the final day, Vigen used his rested lead team of Red and Beau, while going with Alfie and Foley on the wheel once again. Like they did on opening night, Armstrong rode Emmett and Motowylo was on Coco.
Vigen’s horses rewarded him once again by winning Sunday’s eighth heat in the show’s fastest time of 1:15.39 for his second day-money run in four days to give him the wire-to-wire victory.
“I felt like we did a really good job in managing our workload in the barn and some key horses only had to run once here, so I’m excited to have some fresh key horses for Strathmore,” said Vigen, who moved atop the World Professional Chuckwagon Association driver standings with 782.5 points.
Looking to win his second World Title in as many years, Vigen has just a slim two-point lead over Chad Fike heading into the Strathmore Stampede, which runs from Friday to Monday.
“It’s been a hard year,” Vigen said. “It’s just a deep crop of drivers and outfits this year. One to eight, it’s all very tight as far as the points are concerned and we have a lot of running left. There’s probably going to be more leaderboard changes as the year goes by.”
Heading into Strathmore, Rae Croteau Jr. is sitting in third spot just half a point behind Fike, while 2024 Cowboys Rangeland Derby champ Jason Glass (772.5 points) and 2023 Battle of the Foothills title holder Jamie Laboucane (746.5 points) round out the top five.
Before Vigen posted the best time of the High River show, he couldn’t help but notice that Motowylo guided his wagon around the track in a speedy time of 1:15.79 in the seventh heat.
“I didn’t know what he had for a time, but I’d be lying if I didn’t see him zooming around the track and winning his heat by a couple lengths,” Vigen said. “At the same time, once you get out there, all that kind of evaporates. You’ve just worry about the four horses in front of you and do the best with what they give you and that’s what we were lucky to pull off.
“It’s always good to get a W. We’ve had some luck in High River in the past. It was good to see a big crowd out there all weekend. We had good weather. The fans are great here. It’s been an exciting show.”
In addition to crediting Armstrong and Motowylo for their steady work all year as his main outriders, Vigen commended the help he continually gets from his barn crew and sponsors.
“I put a lot of emphasis on having a strong barn crew,” he said. “You can’t do it without them. They’re easily the unsung heroes of anything that goes on as far as success-wise for my team, so I’m very proud of the team from the outriders to the crew to the advertisers: Sideworx, Volker Stevin and Glover International.”
