Round # 1 and Friday night in Vegas was kinda scary, and not the Halloween kind. The weather around the country has been the talk around the Thomas and Mack, with some many parts of the country being in a weather pattern not condusive of getting people to Vegas on time. Halloween night should be a better crowd, but that's tomorrow. It was night number 1 for the race to the world championship and the million dollar purse. Although these kids have been riding for 32 events to get here, the big money is in Vegas. Even the cowboys will tell you that!!
With 44 cowboys lined up to ride the best bulls in the world, night one isn't what they call the rank pen; that'll be on Halloween night! The top 40 in the PBR qualifier standings, along with the 4 international riders, all took their shots at their first round draw, which they picked last night on Fremont Street to kick the weekend off. Unfortuantely I was driving through a Wyoming snowstorm and didn't make it to Sin City until Friday morning.
Ross Coleman, Oregon's cowboy, started the night off with a 88.25 on Cat Man Do of (#10 Bucking Bulls) to end up 5th on the night. Brian Canter of Randleman NC stuck it on Rio Grande for 88.50 and finished just ahead of Ross at number four.
Raymore Missouri's Luke Snyder posted 85.75 and Mike Lee was 88 to finish the first flight of bullriders. The second flight had Edmundo Gomes tame Cleo's Pet (Dakota Rodeo/Clay Struve) for 87.50, and Gustavo Perrero the Mexico qualifier was good for 83.73 on Bird Creek, and Cody Ford was 83.50 on PFI's Disco Baby.
Shane Procter, JB's brother-in-law who won the "World's Toughest Cowboy" competition a season ago, tried to start the fire in the T & M with his 87.25 on moebandy.com (D & H Cattle). The wood must've been wet for the officials but Elliot Jacoby 2 rides later put together an impressive 87.50 on California Dreaming (Frontier/Teague/McBride & Weg) to finish his first ever PBR BFTS qualification.
After three sections, nine qualified rides of 22. The Glen Keeley award winner Aaron Roy went for a ride on Charlie Bullware (Julio Moreno/Chadwick) and Aaron was only the 4th man to ever ride that bull in its career. It wasn't until the 27th bull rider of the night that someone put together what the officials thought was a fantastic bullride. It was Colorado's own, Josh Koschel 89.25 on Bad Moon (Duncan & Evans Bucking Bulls) to change the leaderboard. If anyone's wood was wet it was Josh's. Two days ago his Greeley Colorado home was hit with more than 15 inches of snow. He's certainly glad to be in warmer weather and at the World Finals.
Rocky McDonald's 86.50 on Big Iron (4L & Diamond S Rodeo Co) was going to be finish his evening for the first round. The Land of Enchantment cowboys were up next and it was Edgewood NM's Travis Briscoe continuing his hot streak of late with a blistering 88.75 on Little Juicy of Don Kish. This was going to be good enough to to finish in 3rd position overall and earn him $12,000 for his eight seconds. LJ Jenkins wasn't as fortunate to cash a paycheck on Paycheck. Dustin Elliot, Nebraska's World Champion cowboy from North Platte spurred one to 87.75 on Outta Da Blue of Circle T Ranch. Dustin would end up 9th and finish out of the money for round one.
It was now time for the top contenders to ride their first, and the top ten started with Sean Willingham, Georgia's best bull rider. Seven seconds later, no qualified ride. Wiley Petersen was next and his clock was stopped at 7.9. After much consideration, he hit the replay buzzer and the replay official took a look at his ride and determined that it was 7.5. That decision would cost Petersen a $500 dollar penalty, but the 2008 World Finals champ has plenty left in the bank from his $300,000 dollar paycheck from a couple of finals ago.
Renato Nunes, the backfliiping Brazilian, wouldn't get his chance to showcase to the Versus world that he can do it off the back of the Prieferts, due to his buckoff from Maverick. Robson Palermo would ride to a mediocre 86 along with Valdiron De Oliveira. Those scores would wind up splitting 14/15th place for the evening.
The daredevil Ryan McConnel, after surviving a automobile accident on Tuesday that nearly ended his professional bullrider career, cowboy'd up and hung a 88 point ride on the board to finish splitting 6/7/8th positions. After seeing Ryan's truck and what an ordeal he went through to get here, that along with his bumps and bruises seems minor. We'll wish him the best the remainder of the Finals but that collapsed lung may come into play later on in the week.
Zack Brown wasn't able to put together a successful ride on Pearl Snap and his night ended in frustration and he may have seen his chances of a world title in 2009 slip away this evening.
It was finally showtime for the top 3 men of the PBR World Championship race - the race everybody has been talking about and the most contested in PBR history. Guillherme Marchi has the opportunity to become the first ever to win to back PBR world titles. Kody Lostroh has his own to make and so does the rookie of the year from 3 years ago, JB Mauney.
The Priefert bucking chutes had JB's bull loaded first, Chester(Mendell/Jaeger). The T & M was filled with electricity and the arena floor was shaking. The gate cracked open and JB went jump for jump and held on tight for a leaderboard change of 89.75. The Mooresville NC cowboy had his mom in the stands and he winked at her as he grabbed his bullrope from the arena floor. There's something special about a mom and son relationship and maybe that's what he needs to be the world champion.
Guillherme Marchi was next to go just a chute over and watched the whole time JB was riding, if you don't think he's thinking about it, you might be wrong. The reigning world champion called for the gate and went round for round but at 5.2 he came down off the back of Monkey Blood.
The door was opened for JB and at the same time, I suppose Kody was thinking about kicking it shut!! The Longmont Colorado cowboy, who is no stranger of winning rounds here at the Finals, had drawn Red Kat, which had bucked him off in Dallas. The rematch was not in his favor but I know bullriders - you're never bucked off a bull until you nod your head. This is Las Vegas and a chance at a million dollars might just come down to this 8 second ride. This rematch would go in favor of Lostroh tonight for 83.50 and finish the first night's round in a dismal 17th position out of 19 riders who put up scores. However, it's one bull at a time and jump for jump. This very well could be the ride that solidifies a world title for the front range cowboy.
Overall, JB Mauney did what he needed to do, winning a round and closing the title chase, but there's so many rounds left and we really should start to talk about this race until next week. But, how could you not talk about a million dollar world championship race for the buckle. I know that with JB's win tonight, he cashes a $25,000 check for the go round win but I'm sure there is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that he would much rather have. We'll have to await a few more rounds to determine our 2009 world champion.
In closing, the attendance numbers were not disclosed at press time and the the draw for round two has taken place at the Hard Rock Hotel. The Mandalay Bay has all the pre-PBR festivities and we'll tell you about those activities tomorrow. Until then, stay warm and good night
JW Kinder
Professional Rodeo Announcer
Casper Wyoming
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