HART TAKES LEAD IN QUEST FOR PROFESSIONAL BULL RIDERS
2002 BUD LIGHT CUP WORLD FINALS EVENT TITLE

LAS VEGAS (October 26, 2002) -- His little brother stole the Thomas & Mack Center spotlight Thursday night, but Saturday was J.W. Hart's time to shine at the Professional Bull Riders 2002 Bud Light Cup World Finals presented by Las Vegas and hosted by Caesars Palace.

Hart, PBR's 1995 Rookie of the Year, won Round Three with 92 points on a tight-spinning bull named Coppertop of the D & H Cattle Company herd. The winning ride paid the 27-year-old Hart $22,000, but, more importantly, it pushed his three-round total score to 263.5 points and propelled him into the lead for the PBR Bud Light Cup World Finals event title. It is the most lucrative single-event title of the entire 2002 Bud Light Cup Series, paying a total purse of $1.3 million.

"So far so good, but it's way too early in the event to start counting chickens," said Hart whose younger brother, Cody Hart, won Round One on Thursday night. Cody Hart, the 1999 PBR World Champion, bucked off his Round Two and Round Three bulls, thus knocking him out of contention for the lucrative event title that his older brother is gunning for this week.

Hart is a constant fixture on the PBR's Bud Light Cup Series - so constant that he has earned nicknames like "Ironman" and "the Cal Ripken of bull riding." The 2002 Bud Light Cup World Finals is Hart's 180th consecutive Bud Light Cup Series competition, the longest streak of any PBR athlete in the organization's nine-year history. He burst onto the PBR Bud Light Cup World Finals scene in 1994 when he was only 19 years old.

Though it may seem that Hart's streak is partly attributed to a clean bill of health, the Texas bull rider has ridden injured more times than he can count. He broke his neck when he was 18, the year before his current event streak began, and he has since ridden with a broken jaw (he's broken it in four places), sprained ligaments in his knee, a broken foot, torn ligaments in his riding hand, a herniated disk in his neck and the everyday bruises, cuts, and muscle pulls inherent to his sport.

"I'd give the streak up in a heartbeat for a world championship, but it means a lot to me and I hope it means a lot to the sport and its fans," said Hart, who won two rounds at the 1995 Bud Light Cup World Finals event and one at the 1998 event in Las Vegas.

OTHER NOTES FROM THE PBR 2002 BUD LIGHT CUP WORLD FINALS:

• Each of the year's top two PBR rookies - Dan Henricks and Mike Lee - made qualified rides in Round Three. Henricks topped Terry Williams' bull Smoke Ring for 88 points, while Lee scored 86.5 points on Terry Walls' bull Red Alert. Henricks of Logan, Okla., leads Lee by 181 Bud Light Cup points for PBR's 2002 Rookie of the Year award. In the shadows of 21-year-old Henricks and 19-year-old Lee is another impressive rookie - Craig Sasse of St. Peter, Ill. While Sasse, 20, is sitting low in the rookie standings (since this is only his fifth Bud Light Cup event), he has ridden each of his three World Finals bulls, putting him in contention for the coveted Bud Light Cup World Finals event title.
• Virginia bull rider Billy Robinson competed with a broken shoulder blade in the opening two rounds of competition, but increased pain and swelling forced him out of Round Three action. He was replaced by Chad Brennan, the roster's first alternate. Brennan of Alliance, Neb., was bucked off the legendary Rampage, a bull that Saturday morning was sold by Herrington Cattle Company at the Elite Bull Sale held at the Thomas & Mack Center.