All the barrel racers are asking: What’s the fastest time ever ran on an American (or Canadian) standard pattern?
Here’s the ones we know of. Research base compiled by Kayla Jones, host of The Money Barrel.
Brandon Cullins and A Cornerstone stopped the clock at 16.457 inside the Lazy E Arena in February 2018, and in the seven years since, no one in the United States has gone faster on a standard pattern. That run sits atop a list that stretches from a slot race in Loveland, Colorado to Round 8 of the only NFR ever held on a full-size pattern, and it keeps getting company: four of the 20 fastest standard-pattern runs ever recorded have come since October 2025.
The standard pattern is the sport’s honest yardstick. The WPRA standard calls for a 60-foot score line, 90 feet between the first and second barrels and 105 feet from each of those to the third. Every rodeo arena and every jackpot building squeezes or stretches from there, which is why a 13.4 at the Thomas & Mack in Las Vegas and a 16.5 in Guthrie, Oklahoma can both be world-class runs. When the ground is right and the pattern is full-size, the 16.4s are the sport’s four-minute mile.
A note on the math before the list. Pro rodeos report times in hundredths and the big futurity and derby events report thousandths, so a rodeo 16.56 is ranked here as 16.560. Runs made on shortened score lines are excluded; the community has policed that line hard ever since a 16.415 run on a 45-foot score line in Texas was rejected as a record in 2015. And one asterisk up front: the No. 1 run was reported by Barrel Racing Report as an unofficial North American record, while the WPRA and Barrel Horse News have continued to cite the No. 3 run as the fastest recorded American time. All three are on the list
The list
1. 16.457: Brandon Cullins and A Cornerstone
Lance Graves International Barrel Racing Championships, Lazy E Arena, Guthrie, Oklahoma, February 2018. Cullins piloted Sarah Griffin’s gelding A Cornerstone (Brookstone Bay x Speedy Petitti x Lanes Leinster) to a 16.457 in the Wednesday Open on what producers confirmed was a full standard set. Barrel Racing Report called it an unofficial break of the North American standard-pattern record, and nothing verified has touched it since.
2. 16.476: Michelle Alley and Lipstick N Stilletos
Ruby Buckle Central Futurity, Round 1, Lazy E Arena, April 23, 2024. Heather Moeller’s mare (RR Mistakelly x Seis Caress x Tres Seis) put up the fastest run in Pink Buckle and Ruby Buckle history as a futurity horse, a record inside the building that still stands. It edged Pozzi Tonozzi’s long-cited 16.479 by three thousandths, and only the Cullins run has ever beaten it.
3. 16.479: Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi and Kisskiss Bangbang
Mile Hi Showdown slot race, The Ranch, Loveland, Colorado, September 2015. This is the run the WPRA still cites as the fastest recorded American time on a standard, made on a pattern measured by a WPRA circuit director. “Mona,” a Dash Ta Fame daughter out of CD Nick Bar, held the benchmark for a decade and counting.
4. 16.521: Brandon Cullins and MJ Segers Fast Lane
Pink Buckle Derby, Round 2, Lazy E Arena, October 4, 2023. Cullins again, this time on Grant and Rayel Little’s mare (The Goodbye Lane x SKS Running Faucet x Diamond Faucet), breaking Vauna Walker’s five-year-old Pink Buckle record on the way to the derby title.
5. 16.53: Makenna Shook and XV Mario
Cassia County Fair & Rodeo, Burley, Idaho, August 16, 2025. The current WPRA standard-pattern rodeo record. Shook, a rookie from Needville, Texas, and XV Mario (RR Mistakelly x XV Watch Me Rock x Famous Bugs) took down Hailey Kinsel’s 16.56 from the 2020 NFR. The gelding was patterned by Brandon Cullins, whose fingerprints are all over this list.
6. 16.531: Kay Blandford and Born Ivory James
Pink Buckle Open, Round 2, Lazy E Arena, October 13, 2024. The veteran NFR qualifier and JP7C Properties’ buckskin mare (Born Ta Be Famous x Chase This Ivory x Ivory James) led the round with one of the fastest runs ever made at a Buckle event.
7. 16.551: Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi and Tres Chasin Babe PZ
Pink Buckle Futurity, Round 2, Lazy E Arena, October 6, 2023. “Rosie,” a Tres Seis daughter owned by Teton Ridge, won the round and the average in the same week Cullins ran his 16.521, a futurity horse outrunning nearly every open horse in the country.
8. 16.554: Jordynn Knight and Runnin Ron
Xtreme Nampa Mini Million, Ford Idaho Horse Park, Nampa, Idaho, July 2026. The newest run on the list. Knight and the Tres Seis gelding (Tres Seis x Love Shack x Holland Ease) won the Mini Million 1D worth $5,669, and the same run swept the Sunday Open and Bonus Bucks 1Ds.
9. 16.557: Jordynn Knight and Dashing French Belle
Same building, same week. “Barbie” (Dash Ta Fame x French Bar Belle x Frenchmans Guy), owned by Carley and Brad Knight, ran second in the 1D three thousandths behind her stablemate.
10. 16.558: Ceri Ward and GamblingSlick
Pink Buckle Futurity, Round 2, Lazy E Arena, October 2025. The fastest run of the 2025 Pink Buckle, and further proof that the futurity round two in Guthrie has become the fastest set of conditions in the sport.
11. 16.56: Hailey Kinsel and DM Sissy Hayday
Round 8, Wrangler NFR, Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas, December 2020. The pandemic-year NFR is the only one ever run on a standard pattern, and “Sister” (PC Frenchmans Hayday) turned in the only run of those ten rounds fast enough for this list. It stood as the WPRA record for nearly five years until Shook’s 16.53.
12. 16.567: Vauna Walker and French Goodbye
Inaugural Pink Buckle Futurity, Lazy E Arena, October 2018. Walker and French Goodbye, by The Goodbye Lane, set the original Buckle-event standard and left Guthrie as the event’s high-money earner with $98,281. The record lasted five years before Cullins and another Goodbye Lane took it down.
13. 16.57: Hailey Kinsel and DM Sissy Hayday
Fiesta Days Rodeo, Spanish Fork, Utah, July 2025. Worth $14,279 and a Spanish Fork arena record that had belonged to Ivy Conrado-Saebens for nine years. The mare was 14 when she made this run.
14. 16.573: Ashley Schafer and HP Hotrod
Ruby Buckle Central, Lazy E Arena, April 2025. The young stallion (Dash Ta Fame x Rods Last Ladybug) ran his 16.573 in the futurity’s second round and backed it up in the open. A 4-year-old on this list is its own kind of statement.
- Ashley Schafer and HP Hotrod Add Kinder Cup Slot Race Title and $22K to 4-Year-Old Stallion’s Resume
15. 16.58: Jodee Miller and M R Im On Fire Guys
Ellensburg Rodeo, Round 2, Ellensburg, Washington, September 2024. The bay roan stallion by French Streaktovegas set an arena record at one of the great outdoor setups in the Northwest.
16. 16.59 (tie): Hailey Kinsel and DM Sissy Hayday
Mountain Valley Stampede, Heber City, Utah, August 2024. A $7,747 weekend and Sister’s third appearance in the top 20, a year before the Spanish Fork record run.
17. 16.59 (tie): Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi and Jets Top Gun
That Famous Preston Night Rodeo, Preston, Idaho, August 2023. “Benny” (Blazin Jetolena) ran this one during Pozzi Tonozzi’s 2023 world-title season.
18. 16.590 (tie): Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi and Ima Famous Babe
Lance Graves International, Lazy E Arena, February 2018. “Katniss” (Dash Ta Fame x Streakin Six Babe) won the first round of the five-year-old futurity at the same event where Cullins ran the 16.457. The late mare, who died in 2022 at nine, remains one of the fastest horses Pozzi Tonozzi ever threw a leg over.
19. 16.593: Michelle Alley and Lipstick N Stilletos
Ruby Buckle Central Derby, Round 2, Lazy E Arena, April 2025. The mare’s second entry on the list.
20. 16.603: Kassie Mowry and Force The Goodbye
Pink Buckle Derby, Round 2, Lazy E Arena, October 2025. Mowry and The Goodbye Lane’s daughter closed out the top 20 in the same round that produced three other runs on this page. Round 2 in Guthrie is where the record book gets rewritten.
Knocking on the door: the 16.60s
The next tier reads like a who’s who, and half of these were arena or association records when they were run.
• 16.605 Kaiden Ayres and Oliver Cromwell, Pink Buckle, Round 2, Guthrie, Oklahoma, October 2024
• 16.61 Hailey Kinsel and DM Sissy Hayday, Kansas’ Biggest Rodeo, Phillipsburg, Kansas, August 2021 (arena record)
• 16.617 Taylor Miniat and JH Single Lady, Pink Buckle Derby, Round 2, October 2025
• 16.62 McKenna Coronado and KT Shine Down, Reno Rodeo, Round 2, June 2025 (arena record)
• 16.63 Hailey Kinsel and DM Sissy Hayday, Dodge City Roundup, Round 2, August 2020 (the WPRA rodeo record at the time)
• 16.631 Chloe Gray and Guys On Firewater, Ruby Buckle Open, Guthrie, Oklahoma, April 2024
• 16.65 Ivy Conrado-Saebens and CFour Tibbie Stinson, Fiesta Days Rodeo, Spanish Fork, Utah, July 2016
• 16.68 Benette Barrington-Little and JL Dash Ta Heaven, Dodge City Roundup, August 2011, the run that started the modern record chase
• 16.686 Scamper Cole and Ima Epic Hustler, Ruby Buckle Open, Guthrie, Oklahoma, April 2023
• 16.693 Heidi Gunderson and Wonder If Im Lucky, Ruby Buckle Central, Guthrie, Oklahoma, April 2026
How the WPRA rodeo record has fallen
Strip the list down to WPRA pro rodeos only and the record line reads like a relay. Benette Barrington-Little set the mark at 16.68 in Dodge City in 2011. Ivy Conrado-Saebens took it to 16.65 at Spanish Fork in 2016. Hailey Kinsel lowered it twice in 2020, first to 16.63 back in Dodge City, then to 16.56 under the lights at Globe Life Field in Arlington. It took a rookie to break the run: Makenna Shook and XV Mario, 16.53, on a Saturday in Burley, Idaho in August 2025. Every horse in that chain except XV Mario carries Dash Ta Fame blood up close, and XV Mario’s sire RR Mistakelly also put Lipstick N Stilletos at No. 2 on the all-time list.
FAQ’s
What about the world record?
Brazil owns the conversation. Anderson Carreira and Black Cat Lider ran a 16.080 on standard dimensions in 2025, widely reported in Brazil as the world record, and Evelino Rocha and Rollin In The Fame ran 16.369 back in 2017. Sanctioning and pattern verification differ between countries, which is why American lists are kept separately, but the gap is real and the Brazilian futurity programs are not slowing down.
What is a standard barrel racing pattern?
The WPRA standard pattern uses a 60-foot score line, 90 feet between the first and second barrels and 105 feet from each of those barrels to the third. Most rodeo arenas run smaller or modified versions, which is why standard-pattern times are tracked as their own record book.
What is the fastest barrel racing time ever run on a standard pattern in the United States?
Brandon Cullins and A Cornerstone ran 16.457 at the Lance Graves International at the Lazy E Arena in 2018, reported at the time as an unofficial North American record. The fastest run the WPRA cites is Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi’s 16.479 on Kisskiss Bangbang from 2015, and Michelle Alley’s 16.476 on Lipstick N Stilletos is the fastest ever at a Pink Buckle or Ruby Buckle event.
Who holds the WPRA standard-pattern record at a pro rodeo?
Makenna Shook and XV Mario, 16.53, set August 16, 2025 at the Cassia County Fair & Rodeo in Burley, Idaho. It broke Hailey Kinsel and DM Sissy Hayday’s 16.56 from Round 8 of the 2020 NFR.
Why are NFR times in Las Vegas so much faster?
The Thomas & Mack Center pattern is much smaller than a standard set, which is why NFR winning runs sit in the low 13-second range on a fast day. The 2020 NFR at Globe Life Field in Arlington is the only finals ever run on a full standard pattern.