Laboucane leads Rangeland Derby into Showdown Sunday final after nine days of dominance

Jamie Laboucane will race for the Rangeland Derby championship Sunday after dominating the first nine days of the Calgary Stampede, posting the quickest aggregate time of 10:47.00 and the fastest single run on Day 9 at 1:11.01.

Laboucane will face defending champion Chanse Vigen, who finished second in the aggregate standings with 10:49.97, and Jason Glass, whose third-place finish of 10:52.11 represents a remarkable week after his father's death just weeks prior.

Laboucane posted the fastest time on four of the nine nights and spoke of the focus required to tune out the Stampede's intense media attention and noise. "It's a different beast running the 10 days, and it's been 20 years for me and 12 years at Stampede," he said. "I've gotten fairly used to everything that goes on around here. I've been able to lock in and block out the noise."

Vigen, aiming to defend his title, signaled he won't change his approach heading into Sunday. "Not a whole bunch of change, just stick to what's working. We're going to do the exact same process and follow it the way we did last year because it worked for us."

Laboucane said he'll rest one of his outfits and have them ready for Sunday, aiming to keep his edge after a dominant week. Prime Minister Mark Carney attended Saturday's races, witnessing the final qualifying heats at GMC Stadium.