COLUMBUS, Ohio (October 9, 2009) -
· Beau Hill won a Canadian Cup Series event in Ottawa last weekend. The Montana cowboy opted out of the Portland event as an alternate in order to compete north of the border. By virtue of his $7,620.10 payday, he’s now leading the Canadian standings, but more importantly, he moved to 29 in the qualifier standings for the upcoming PBR World Finals.
· After securing a spot in Las Vegas, Hill decided to doctor out of the Columbus event (general soreness) this weekend to give himself time to heal up before the Finals. Hill will be replaced in the Columbus draw by Matt Werries.
· With Hill having moved up the qualifier standings, last year’s Daisy Rookie of the Year Reese Cates has fallen to the 41st position in the qualifier standings and is $1,724.08 behind Ben Jones.
· Besides Cates, Matt Bohon, Brendon Clark and Mike White are among the eight riders competing this weekend in Columbus who have yet to qualify for the Finals.
· There are 17 bulls making their debuts in Round 1 this weekend, and another 10 are doing so in Round 2.
· There are five riders – Brian Canter, Cody Ford, Pete Farley, Hill and Devon Mezei – currently listed with “injured status.” Canter, 14; Ford, 15; Farley, 35 and Hill, 38; are ranked in the Top 40 in the world standings.
· There are three rematches in Round 1: J.B. Mauney previously rode Semi-Automatic two years ago in Kansas City for 85.75, Bohon rode The Bug earlier this year in Tulsa for 87.5 and Ross Coleman is 1-for-2 on Scaredy Cat. He bucked off of earlier this year in New York City, but he rode him for 89.5 points last year in Albany.
· There are four rematches in Round 2: Billy Robinson has previously bucked off Rapid Reaction and Valdiron de Oliveira had the same outcome on Black Monday, while Dusty Ephrom rode Cajun King back in Birmingham for 82.5 points. However, Chris Shivers has gotten on Shane four times in the past three seasons and three times he’s successfully made the whistle, including earlier this year in Albuquerque for 88 points.
· The Top 3 riders in the world still have recorded the most 90-point rides in 2009. Guilherme Marchi leads the way with 11, while Kody Lostroh has 9 and Mauney has 8. Collectively there have been 79 scores of 90 points or better recorded this year.
· Cody Nance has extended his lead over fellow Daisy Rookie of the Year contender Skeeter Kingsolver to nearly $20,000.
· The 29 event winners have collected a total of $1,083,092.74 for winning Built Ford Tough Series events in 2009. Prize money from two more BFTS winners will increase that total to approximately $1.2 million.
· The BFTS has gone to Columbus nine previous times, and four winners of the event will be competing there this weekend. Zack Brown won last year, while White has done so twice before (‘07 and ‘04). L.J. Jenkins (‘05) and Ednei Caminhas (‘02) have also won in Columbus.
· Four of the Top 5 bulls of 2009 will be in Columbus. They are Bones, Code Blue, Chicken on a Chain and Apollo.
