First of all, for those of you that read my news and notes prior to round 5 I'm happy to report that I thought I would bet on the amount of rides we see tonight and by golly I was dead on. It was 24 bull riders that made the whistle and you had to be in the 90 point class to get the share of the money on Friday night.
The Thomas and Mack was the scene for a Friday night showdown between the bulls and the cowboys of the PBR. Throughout the last 4 rounds, only one night were we able to witness an 89.75 share some money on the go round stage. Tonight, once again it was all or nothing for the Friday night crowd. The 17,000 that filled the seats for this evening were in rare form. Friday night in Las Vegas and they were loaded and ready to cheer on their talents in cowboy boots and hooves.
The night started with a tribute to the United States of America and the PBR's corporate sponsors the US Border Patrol. Once again, I can't help but say it again, if you have never witnessed a PBR opening, just go to an event near you and they will sure to please. From the moment they grab you in the openings to the start of the first guy out, it is jam packed with entertainment.
The first section of eight bullriders came and went with 3 qualified rides and they were Billy Robinson 89.75 on Booger Butt (Robinson/Tedesco/Larry the Cable Guy/Broken N-N), Matt Bohon 88.25 with Over the Edge (Lufkin Ranch) and Leonil Santos who is riding for the Daisy Rookie of the Year title 87.75 on Fraggle Rock of Roy Carter.
The second section of 8 found another 3 qualifiers in the section. Clayton Williams was 85.25 on Bad Brad of Jerome Davis. Justin McBride squeezed in there with his 89.75 on Small Package of Sammy Andrews and we seen the first 90 of the night with Canada's Aaron Roy as he went jump for jump with Wrangler's Rock Star (Braithwaite/Dansey).
Third section and there seemed to be somewhat of a pattern forming, another 3 qualified rides. This section belonged to Josh Koschel and Austin Meier who would split a pair of 89.25 rides. Josh would cover Recoil of D & H Cattle Company and Austin would take a ride on Slow Ride. The young Kansas cowboy Kasey Hayes wasn't quite happy with the way his finals have been shaping up but tonight he was California Dreaming. He rode California Dreaming for 91 points and set the confetti streaming into the Thomas and Mack for the second time this evening. As we turned the page on the daysheet and checked out section 4 and who was left on the list, I was thinking with 21 cowboys to go, this was fixing to get good. I was right!!!
Halfway through the night and there was some unlikely candidates that could steal this round away from J.B or Guilherme. I couldn't have been more wrong. Section 4 found 6 of the 8 getting to the whistle and they were all close to 89 point bull rides. Brendan Clark was the only one not to reach the 89 point plateau with his 88.25 aboard Gonzales Black of James DeBord. Travis Briscoe who started this season like a house a fire finally put an 89 point ride together with Palace Station Deuces Wild of the stock contractor of the year Chad Berger/Rossen/Low. The singing cowboy Colby Yates would chime in with his 89.25 aboard Wildlife of Boyd/Floyd. A pair of 89.50's would be turned in by rookie of the year contender Reese Cates on Live Wire Chad Berger/Clay Strueve and J.B. Mauney on Cat Man Do, which wouldn't get him a go round win but would be good enough for the $5000 bonus for the Enterprise Ride of the Night. This would however keep him in the number spot in the average for the world finals and keep the pressure on the world championship race.
It was time to get to section five where the veterans of the PBR are stacked in there and they to wouldn't disappoint us. Six of the eight would ride their bovine and it started with Ednei Caminhas riding for 86.5 points but brought the crowd to a halt with his get off. Too Sharp was almost that, his hooves caught Ednei right in the back of the neck and as he stumbled back to the chutes, the Justin Sports Medicine team went in for the rescue. After watching the Copenhagen jumbotron for a complete look at the situation, it certainly looked bad from every direction you watched the replay. He would however gather himself and leave the arena on his feet and the crowd would just get back into their seats when Chris Shivers would nod his cowboy hat and light another fire underneath the fans. His 90 pointer with the powerhouse bucking bull Cooper of Chad Berger/Strueve/Julie Rossen would find him back on the leaderboard after taking a couple nights off. Dustin Elliott would finally get it done tonight with 88.75 aboard Boogie Man of Braithwaite/Dansey and Oregon's Ross Coleman would add his 88.75 to Dustin's in this section riding Crossover of D & H Cattle Company. Robson Palermo would be a ho-hum 89.5 on Nervous Waters of Frontier/Teague/Ron White. It was starting to look like these guys were glued on tonight and I was sure that the top 5 wouldn't go down without a fight.
The top five and the final section of the toughest sport on dirt would see Mike Lee come down early. Kody Lostroh who normally has finals to remember may want to forget the middle rounds of this year's. The last 2 nights haven't been kind and he wasn't able to use enough glue tonight to stay aboard. I'm just kidding about the glue part, but anyway, Renato Nunes after 4 rounds has 3 90 point rides and tonight wouldn't be any different. 92.25 on Walk the Line of Chad Berger/Strueve which carried Justin McBride to a go round win last year would take Renato to the top. Valdiron de Oliviera sent the confetti a flying again and would bust the 90.50 mark aboard Scaredy Cat and still keep him in contention for the world title. He isn't mathematically eliminated because all the talk in Las Vegas has been about J.B, but Valdiron is just consistently going about his business. Guilherme Marchi has seen this before and is no stranger to final rides of the night. It was announced tonight that with J.B. Mauney ride of 89.5 and not good enough for any points in the go round, that if Guilherme rides this bull and placed second in the round, that would secure him enough points to win the 1 million dollar bonus. This must have added some pressure because after 8 seconds of work on Firewater of Big Bend/Flying 5, it was good for 89 points and keep the suspense in the building.
The evening was one for the ages and as we turn to the final two rounds left and the short go on Sunday afternoon, I remind you all that it will be live on NBC so check your local listings for the correct time slot in your area.
I will finish with the top 15 race for the $250,000 world final title. It's still J.B. Mauney (456.75) out in front with Guilherme Marchi (448.75). 3rd Renato Nunes 367.50, 4th is Chris Shivers (360.25) and fifth spot being held down by Reese Cates (358.50) 6th Robson Palermo (355) and 7th is Aaron Roy (353) 8th is Brendon Clark (269.75) 9th Valdiron de Oliviera (269) 10th Kasey Hayes (268.5) 11th Ross Coleman (268.5) 12th Mike White (268) 13th Justin McBride (267.75) 14th Zack Brown (267) and 15th Colby Yates (266.25). If it were to end tonight these men would make the short round finals on Sunday, but it is not over with. We have 2 more rounds and I hope you join us for the conclusion of the PBR world finals form Las Vegas.
Take care and Enjoy
J.W. Kinder
PRCA Rodeo Announcer & Western Regional Director
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