PUEBLO, Colo. (November 13, 2008) - Imagine a rider spending good money to travel to the PBR’s January tour stop in New York City and drawing a pair of 69-point bulls.
He flies back home in frustration because he didn’t have the bull power to finish in the money.
That would never happen, because the Professional Bull Riders is highly committed to assuring contestants that they will be matched against the rankest bulls around.
The association’s founding fathers purposed from Day 1 to take the luck of the draw out of winning the events as much as possible.
When the PBR was founded in 1992, the world’s top competitors won many of the major rodeos mainly because they drew the right bulls. On the other hand, they were often denied paychecks because they drew the 69-point bulls and they didn’t receive enough points to finish high overall.
But today, in the PBR, winning is not about drawing the right bull. It’s about making qualified rides.
Winning is simple. Just stay on.
Losing is simple. Just fall off.
More than ever in the history of bull riding, the PBR has made it possible for a cowboy to control his destiny.
“Nobody has the excuse of not succeeding,” said three-time World Champion Adriano Moraes, who won the PBR’s first gold buckle in 1994. “Now, it’s just up to the rider. When they pick the bulls, it’s their own fault if they don’t make the best of it.”
Just take the Oct. 31-Nov. 2 and Nov. 6-9 World Finals in Las Vegas as an example. Brazilians Robson Palermo and Guilherme Marchi finished 1-2 in the average, mainly because they stayed on more bulls than the rest of the field. They were the only cowboys who received scores on seven head after competing in eight rounds.
And Marchi snared the 2008 world title mainly because he stayed on a notably higher percentage of bulls throughout the year than his rivals. He made qualified rides on 74.8 percent of the bulls that he faced this season on the Built Ford Tough Series. By comparison, J.B Mauney, who finished second in the world title race, stayed on 59.4 percent.
Ultimately, no rider came blame losing on bad draws, especially if they compete on the Ford Series, the association’s top-tier tour. If a bull doesn’t perform, cowboys will receive a re-ride. And that’s good news, because even the tougher bulls sometimes can have off nights.
Even during the regular season tour stops, it’s all about staying on. Over the years, there have been many regular-season shows that have been won by the rider who stayed on all of his bulls.
Another reason that riders are without excuses is they now have lots of opportunities throughout the season to select bulls in the draft, the system that allows riders to pick the bulls they will face in the upcoming round. If a cowboy has a top draft pick, he really is in control of his destiny.
Throughout the 2008 World Finals, the draft was used in the first seven rounds.
Top picks were based on the results of the previous round.
The final was the only round that did not feature the draft. Though a random draw was used, even then cowboys were assured that they would receive a very rank bull, because the 15-man finals featured the toughest of the tough.
During the short round, only three riders stayed on for the required 8 seconds. Palermo won the average (a $250,000 prize) after staying on his final round bull and moved ahead of Marchi, who was denied the average title because he was bucked off.
In recent years, no cowboy has been able to say that he didn’t win the World Finals because he didn’t draw the right bulls. Instead, it’s because he didn’t stay on all eight, a feat that’s yet to be accomplished.
Marchi emphatically said throughout the 2008 World Finals that he wanted to be the first to go eight-for-eight. But he fell short when he was thrown in the final by a foe named Bones, the PBR’s 2008 World Champion Bull.
“The bottom line is if you stay on your bulls, you are going to win a lot of money,” said PBR Chief Executive officer Randy Bernard. “Your top 10 guys are the ones who are the most consistent. They are the ones who are putting in thought, studying these bulls, and they know what they are doing.”
Granted, there are individual cases when a cowboy can say that he did not win because his bull wasn’t tough enough. For example, Mauney picked the notorious bull Cat Man Do in Round Five, expecting to score in the 90s. But instead, Cat Man Do had an off night and Mauney scored in the high 80s and finished out of the money after making a clean ride.
However, Mauney finished Round 5 leading the average, and could have claimed the average title had he stayed on the rest his bulls. Mauney didn’t win the average mainly because he was bucked off in Round 6 and Round 7.
Historically, the PBR was founded on making sure that the world’s top cowboys were pitted against an all-star cast of bulls and that in turn would attract fans.
Cody Lambert, the association’s livestock director, remembers the challenge of finding enough high quality bulls for the inaugural World Finals in 1994.
“Fifteen years ago, at the World Finals, I was trying to get enough bulls, so for three days everyone could score at least 80 points, and it was impossible to do at that time,” Lambert said. “But we did make the effort. It took us four of five years to get to that point and we have continually tried to make it better and better.”
In the early 1990s, the PBR’s founding fathers organized the association, partially out of frustration of continually being denied the chance to win on the pro rodeo circuits because of a bad draws.
When they competed on the national rodeo circuit, they would make comments such as: “I need to go to this rodeo because I’ve got a good bull, but I’m going to turn out at this other rodeo because I’ve drawn a hunk of junk. It’s not worth flying to Oregon from Texas to get on a bull that I can’t win on.”
They were continually aggravated with being matched against sluggish bulls at the high-profile rodeos, the most famous shows in the world that were conducted in cities such as Denver and Cheyenne, Wyo. When the bigger prize money was at stake, the more gifted competitors really needed great stock at the bigger rodeos as they fed their families, made mortgage payments and attempted to qualify for important post-season shows.
Michael Gaffney, a PBR founding father who won the world title in 1997, remembers the frustration of consistently drawing laggards.
“In those days, you could make the excuse for not winning because you had a sorry bull,” Gaffney said. “But now, in the PBR, that’s not part of the equation.”
One person who did not make excuses for his lackluster performance at the PBR World Finals was 13-time qualifier Brian Herman, who stayed on only one bull in seven tries.
“There’s no excuses whatsoever, especially at this Finals with the bulls that they have here and the fact that you can pick in every round,” Herman said in a locker room interview at the Finals. “Everything that we’re getting on is short-round caliber bulls at regular-season events. It’s a riding contest, and I’ve definitely been out-rode. I haven’t been outdrawn. So, I just have to come back in next year and outride them.”
Moraes said organizers did a superb job of recruiting the tougher bulls for the World Finals.
“Even if you pick the easiest or the toughest ones, they might be half a point apart,” Moraes said. “They are all great bulls, and now you know every time you nod your head, you have a bucker. So, it’s not up to the bull that you’ve drawn. It’s up to you.”
One bull rider who agrees is PBR co-founder Gilbert Carrillo. Like Moraes, he competed in the first PBR World Finals in 1994 and he’s watched bucking bull pens become tougher and tougher.
After 15 years of breeding bulls to buck in dramatic fashion, there are more bulls than ever in the PBR that can help riders earn a high score.
“If you hang on, you’re going to win a fat check,” Carrillo said. “It’s not the luck of the draw. It’s who can stay on.”
-by Brett Hoffman
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