SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (September 18, 2010) - Like most everyone else at the JQH Arena Friday, J.W. Hart was thinking about last week’s replay challenge controversy.
Hart said the ability of one rider to challenge the ride of another is about “getting the right call,” and while he doesn’t think he would have done what Renato Nunes did in challenging Ryan McConnel’s qualified score in the first of the Final Five Showdowns, he readily admitted, “I can’t really speak for what a million dollars on the line would make me do.”
“On the other side, he did it to make a point and he was tired of the judges,” Hart continued. “I don’t blame him for that one. … I don’t have a problem with it, but I might not have done it. I don’t know. … In an everyday position I might now, but for a million dollars and my family on the line—it’s a different story.”
The World Cup, to Hart, is also another story.
Hart said that last April, the U.S. team was prepared to use the challenge button against Brazil in an effort keep pace.
After the first day of competition, Brazil had a one-bull advantage over the Americans and led by 90.25 points. Hart, who had captained the U.S. team to back-to-back World Cup wins, including an upset of the Brazilians in their home country the year before, discussed all 50 matchups for the next two rounds with his team.
In Round 3, Guilherme Marchi was matched up with Real Moody.
Because of Real Moody’s bucking style and Marchi’s injured right wrist, Hart said, “We just felt like there was a possibility he could slap him because the bull kind of has some belly roll to him.”
Thinking Marchi could “overcompensate for his hand,” Hart had McKennon Wimberly and Travis Briscoe behind the chutes watching for it.
“I went around to the side and stood there looking over the fence, right there where the bull was going to be coming,” explained Hart, who didn’t want to fall another full score behind. “(Real Moody) has got a pretty steady pattern.”
Shortly after the bull came out of the chute, he slipped and fell, and Marchi was awarded a re-ride option. Their preparation had been in vain.
Hart was not implying that the judges would have missed a slap. He was merely prepared to ask for a challenge if one had gone unnoticed.
“We weren’t going to hit the button if we weren’t 100-percent sure,” Hart said.
Brazil went on to dominate the competition and eventually won the event with a total score of 1,330.25 points. The United States finished second with 972 points.
Hart believes that a challenge like the one he anticipated will eventually happen in a World Cup format, but that it’ll be much slower to happen at a Built Ford Tough Series event.
“You might start seeing some spillover,” Hart said. “I mean, Adriano [Moraes] threatened to call it on me several times. But that’s not here nor there now.”
