From the rideable to the rank: What a difference a day makes

By Mary Rudloff
Posted Sunday, November 2, 2008

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – What makes the PBR World Finals in Las Vegas so special?

North Carolina bull rider J.B. Mauney could name about 60,000 things … and they all have dollar signs attached.

The Mooresville 21-year old crossed the $1 million mark in career earnings when he won round one of the PBR World Finals on Friday night.

How do you top that? Win round two.

Saturday night at the Thomas and Mack Center, on the campus of UNLV, saw the rankest of the rank bulls come out for round two. The record breaking round of qualified rides in round one didn’t repeat itself, however. While Friday night belonged to the cowboys, Saturday night was all about the bulls.

Well, almost all. Mauney was one of only 14 riders – quite a drop from Friday’s 33 – to post scores in round two. Both nights, it took 90+ point rides to launch him into the lead. On Saturday, that score, a 93.5, came aboard Troubadour (Julio Moreno).

So while season points leader Guilherme Marchi fights to hold onto his lead in the race for the World Champion title, Mauney is playing “catch me if you can” in the World Finals average. Each round put $25,000 in prize money in Mauney’s pocket. Added to that each night was another $5,000 in the “Enterprise Ride With the Best.” Mauney was eligible for the bonus in round one because of his round-winning ride in the last event, at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut two weeks ago. Friday night’s round-winner brought Mauney another successful shot at the bonus money on Saturday night.

What’s his secret? According to him, he doesn’t have one. In a post-round press conference, Mauney said he is taking the finals one bull at a time, one jump at a time.

Evidently that plan of attack is working.

Of the 14 qualified rides in the round, 11 are the second scores of the finals for the bull riders. Only 1.75 points behind Mauney in the finals average is the back-flipping Brazilian, Renato Nunes. Nunes matched his Friday night round one score, landing a 92-pointer in round two on Nervous Waters (Frontier/Teague/Ron White). That gave him third place in the round, and second place in the average. In two rounds, Nunes has earned a total of $30,000.

Marchi, in his quest for the World Champion gold buckle, beat his previous night’s points, bringing the crowd to its collective feet on the last ride of round two, scoring 92.25 points on Copperhead Slinger (Chad Berger/Clay Struve). That score brought him a second place finish in the round, and third in the Finals average. Marchi has won $29,000 in the Finals in two rounds, but even more importantly, his rides have helped him widen the points gap between himself, Kody Lostroh and Valdiron de Oliveira, with Marchi earning a total of 807.5 points in two rounds.

Like Friday night, two time world champ Chris Shivers split 4th and 5th place in round two. Shivers also broke the 90-point mark in the round, with 90.75 points on California Dreaming (Frontier/Teague/McBride & Wegman). That puts Shivers 4th in the finals average, with a cumulative score of 180.5 points, and $10,000 in prize money.

Splitting round two with Shivers was Brendon Clark, with a crowd-thrilling ride on Scene of the Crash (Frontier/Teague/Ron White). Clark, visibly frustrated after bucking off Friday night – his first bull ride in more than four months due to injury – celebrated when he took the early round lead with his wild ride in round two.

Adriano Moraes may see his retirement from bull riding quickly approaching, with only six more rounds to go before he calls his stellar career closed, but that doesn’t mean he is going to go quietly. Moraes followed up his round one score with an 89.5 ride on Bad Yeller (D&H Cattle Co.) in round two, to the delight of the crowd. That ride saw Moraes splitting 6th through 8th place in the round with Zack Brown, who rode Gnash (Rafter 7R Bucking Bulls) and Dustin Hall who took on the newly-named Super Duty (D&H Cattle Co.). For each of the three, it was their second score in a row.

Other scores in the round were:

9th, Reese Cates on Rewind (Mann Creek Cattle Co/Curtis Mend), 89.25 points;

10th, Valdiron de Oliveira getting his first qualified ride of the finals, on Hot Pistol (Boyd/Floyd Bull Co) for 89 points;

11th, Austin Meier with 88 points on Crazy Train (D&H Cattle Co);

12th, Aaron Roy putting up his second score of the finals, an 86.75 on War Zone (Corey & Horst Rodeo Co.);

13th Jared Farley, with 86 points on Red Chester (Woodruff/XS Ranch), his second score of the finals;

14th, Shane Proctor, with 81.75 points hanging off the side of Tuscarora (Talbert Land & Cattle), determined not to hit the dirt. It was also Proctor’s second score in a row.

For all the other riders – including many who were part of the score-posting free-for-all in Friday’s round one – the rank pen proved especially rank. Five of the rides didn’t even reach the two second mark: Clayton Foltyn on Major Payne (Red Knection K Bulls) at 1.7 seconds; Brian Herman getting done in by I’m a Gangster (Teague Bucking Bulls) at 1.9 seconds; Colby Yates, who after suffering a concussion in Friday night’s round, bucked off Cactus (Davis/Wilson/Mayo/Hooker) at 1.7 seconds; 2004 world champ Mike Lee, who had a rough time with Avalanche in the chute, and then bucked off at 1.8 seconds; and, with the shortest ride of the night, Travis Briscoe, who found out the power of Spit Fire (C&G Rodeo Livestock, LLC) in just one second.

Because the draft system is being used in all eight rounds of the PBR World Finals this year, that will leave Briscoe in the unenviable position of getting the last bull not taken for round three. The bull riders choose their rides based on their score in the previous round, or the length of their ride before being bucked off. The draft for Sunday afternoon’s round three was slated to take place at the Sahara Hotel and Casino shortly after the conclusion of Saturday’s round two.

During the event, bull fighter Joe Baumgartner was injured when he stepped in to rescue bull rider Travis Briscoe and then was run over and stepped on by Spit Fire (C&G Rodeo Livestock). The early diagnosis was an ankle that was both dislocated and broken, and Baumgartner, who was carried out of the arena, will require surgery and is out indefinitely.

World Champion race

In the race for the gold buckle and title of 2008 PBR World Champion, Guilherme Marchi still has a solid lead of more than 3,200 points, including the 807.5 points earned during the finals already.

Fellow Brazilian Valdiron de Oliveira leap-frogged over Kody Lostroh in the overall standings, back into the number 2 position, after Lostroh bucked off the retiring Camo (Boyd/Floyd) at the six-second mark in round two. Lostroh had vaulted past Oliveira in round one, when Oliveira bucked off and Lostroh had tied for third in that round. They are currently about 315 points apart.

Winning both rounds has put J.B. Mauney in the fourth place slot in the 2008 season standings, about 760 points behind Lostroh. He is followed by Renato Nunes in 5th, then Mike Lee, Ross Coleman, L.J. Jenkins, Wiley Petersen and Dustin Elliott rounding out the top ten.

Action continues in round three at the Thomas and Mack on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. (Pacific time). Then the bull riders get a few days off, with round four picking back up on Thursday, Nov. 6.