ARLINGTON, Texas (February 19, 2010) - When the PBR stops at Cowboys Stadium this weekend for the Dickies Iron Cowboy Invitational, the winning rider will have to mount several bulls in one night.
It’s the ultimate endurance test for the cowboy. But it's also a how-much-grit-do-you-have exam for three famous bulls.
In the new tournament-style format, the semifinal and final-round riders will face the same bull within minutes. The other 40 bovines buck only once.
The twice-outers are Code Blue, Voodoo Child and Big Tex, the top three finishers in the PBR’s 2009 World Champion Bull title race.
But Code Blue has been in similar situations before. When he performed in the amateur ranks, he was often tougher the second time around.
“I just pity who gets on him the second time,” said Rick Wagoner of North Carolina-based WW Bucking Bulls, who co-owns Code Blue. “He’ll be mad.”
When bulls are featured in the amateur ranks, it’s fairly common for an animal to buck twice in one night, like a pro baseball player who suits up for a double-header. But when a bull becomes prominent on the pro tour, it’s standard procedure that he’s only out once in one day.
But the Feb. 20 Arlington tour stop is the rare exception. It marks the first time the PBR will use a tournament format in its storied history of 17 seasons.
The 2010 Dickies Iron Cowboy Invitational presented by Winstar World Casinos will feature a field of 24 riders, including 2009 World Champion Kody Lostroh, J.B. Mauney, who finished runner-up in the 2009 and 2008 world title races, and 2008 gold buckle winner Guilherme Marchi.
The riders will be paired, and each cowboy will face a comparable bull with the winner moving on to the next level. But in the final two rounds, competing cowboys actually will ride the same bull.
By the end of the competition, the winning cowboy will have taken on either four or five bulls (depending on how he was originally seeded), and will receive the coveted $260,000 prize.
“The bull riders are going to have to ride four or five times in one night, and so it’s going to be tougher on the men than it is on the stock,” said Cody Lambert, the PBR’s longtime livestock director.
Voodoo Child and Big Tex are scheduled during the semifinal round. And the show concludes with two cowboys taking on Code Blue.
“Those three bulls are the toughest three bulls in the PBR, so it’s very unlikely that they will have to buck for 8 seconds (on each ride),” Lambert said.
Lambert said the new format will be a test.
“It’s a sudden-death match,” he said. “It’s having two cowboys going up against the same opponent, and I think fans will really like it. But we’ll find out.”
Code Blue (owned by Walton and Wagoner and Berger and Struve) has been ridden only once in 21 outs in the PBR over the past two seasons. He has bucked off 95.2 percent of the riders he has faced. His average buckoff time is 4.52 seconds, and his average bull score is 46.10. Mauney, who leads the 2010 world title race, is the only cowboy who has made the buzzer on the stalwart, light-colored beast. However, Mauney was way out of position at the end of the ride and received a meager marking of 76.25 points in New York in January.
Voodoo Child (Robinson/Beutler/McNeely) has been ridden one out of 31 times over the past four years in the PBR. He has bucked off 96.8 percent of the cowboys who have attempted to ride him. The average buckoff time is 3.83 seconds, and the average bull score is 45.55. Two-time World Champion Justin McBride is the only cowboy who has stayed on. He turned in a 94.5 at a 2008 tour stop in Tulsa, Okla.
Big Tex (Dakota Rodeo/Berger/Struve) has been ridden two out of 27 attempts over the past three seasons. He’s bucked off 92.6 percent of his challengers. Their average buckoff time is 3.98 seconds, and his average bull score is 45.07. Ryan McConnel turned in a 91.5 after staying on Big Tex at the beginning of the 2010 season in Baltimore. Marchi scored a 94 after conquering the bull last year in Nampa, Idaho.
Bucking the same bull twice in one performance is not totally new in the PBR. Jeff Robinson, a co-owner of Voodoo Child, said stock contractors sometimes have agreed to buck a bull twice in one night if a bull doesn’t have a clean outing and the rider asks for a re-ride on the same bull. He cited an incident in 2007 when his renowned bull, Chicken on a Chain, fell with rider Jason Bennett at a tour stop Kansas City.
At the time, Robinson agreed to run his massive bull back in the chutes. He said the two outs in one performance had no negative effect on Chicken on a Chain’s physical well-being. In fact, the bull went on to become the PBR’s 2007 World Champion.
“When we were at Kansas City, Chicken on a Chain was the last bull out and he came out and fell,” Robinson said. “I wanted to buck him again, and Jason Bennett was offered a re-ride and wanted to get right back on him. And that had to be within a 15- or 20-minute time period that Chicken on a Chain went twice.
“So sometimes you have a situation where a bull fouls a cowboy and the stock contractor agrees to buck the same bull twice in one performance.”
Chad Berger, the PBR’s 2008 and 2009 Stock Contractor of the Year, and a co-owner of Big Tex and Code Blue, said he’s looking forward to seeing the results of bucking his high-profile bulls only minutes apart at the Texas tour stop.
And Cowboys Stadium is one venue that can give him a bigger picture. The stadium’s video board, which hangs over the center of the arena, spans 60 yards, displaying 25,000 square feet of video.
“I want to see if the bulls are better or worse,” Berger said. “It’s an experiment, and I just want to see how they respond. I might not ever want to do it again, but then I might want to do it again. It’s going to be a learning experience for everybody.”
