LAS VEGAS (October 24, 2010) - He dominated.
There’s no other way to put it. Bushwacker thoroughly outclassed the competition on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center to win the ABBI World Finals Classic Championship. He made his owners, Julio Moreno and Richard Oliveira, $250,000 richer.
Bushwacker was awarded 92.75 points in the 20-bull short-go when he sent Jody Newberry to the turf in 2.2 seconds. All it took was a quarter turn to the left to launch the 2003 Built Ford Tough World Finals event winner. The next closest score was 89.75 from D&H Cattle Co’s 66T Hustlin and Tom Teague’s Bad Medicine.
Bushwacker’s two-out total of 183.5 was 6¼ points higher than Moon (Jackson, Holmes, Robinson and Baker) and Bad Blake (Lightning C Cattle Co.). The runners-up will split $134,422.
“Bushwacker blew them away,” PBR Livestock Director Cody Lambert said. “I talked to Gene Baker, one of Moon’s owners, a little while after Bushwacker bucked and I said, ‘Are you nervous?’ and he said, ‘I was until Bushwacker bucked and now I know I can’t catch him.’ That’s how good that bull is.”
Bushwacker’s performance also counted 46.25 points toward the World Champion Bull contest, which will conclude Sunday. He entered the second of two rounds a quarter-point behind Major Payne (Robinson, Bar None, Segs, Skyhawk Rugs & Red Knection), who led with 45.5 points. Bones, the 2008 World Champion owned by Teague, was tied with Bushwacker.
“It will be very, very hard for Bones or Major Payne or Uncle Buck, or any of those, to beat him,” Lambert said. “But it’s not over yet. There is that possibility.”
Moreno was all smiles after receiving his second ABBI Classic Champion belt buckle. His bull Troubadour won the event in 2007. He and Chad Pennington’s Cat Man Do were honored in a video tribute during intermission. Bushwacker was the last bull to buck prior to the break.
“I thought he was great,” Moreno said. “I watched the video replay up on the screen and he was as high as he could be – straight up and down. So that was great.”
22S Priceless (D&H Cattle Co. / L&E Bulls) and Teague’s Bad Medicine rounded out the top five with 177 points and 176.5, respectively. The total payout for all 20 bulls is $575,661. ABBI Classic is competition is limited to 3- and 4-year-olds.
Bushwacker, 4, is attempting to become the first animal to win the ABBI Classic Championship and World Champion Bull in the same season. Moreno likes his bovine’s chances.
“He’s in the lead now and he was tied for second and third,” he said. “Those other bulls got to have trips like they did the first Thursday night, and if they do that, then he’ll win it because nobody was over 45½. So I’m just hoping that that’s the way it works out.”
Lambert found symmetry in Bushwacker winning the Classic title the same night his ranch mate Troubadour was sent off into retirement.
“That means [the Morenos] have a very good breeding program,” he said. “And it came on a great night, too, when Troubadour had his retirement ceremony.
“Out with the old guard, in with the new.”
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