PBR World Finals Round 1 Review
Lachlan Richardson got his seventh PBR World Finals campaign off to a great start last night, putting up 87.25 points on Black Rose from Broken Arrow Bucking Bulls.
Richardson finished sixth in Round 1, adding 42.5 points after splitting the spot with No. 1 Kaique Pacheco.
The Gresford cowboy was awarded a re-ride after his initial draw, Viper hipped himself leaving the bucking chute. He now sits 27th in the PBR World Standings.
Nathan Burtenshaw looked good early in his matchup against Good Night Robicheaux (Flying S – Samford/6M Ranch) but the bull had too much power in the end with the Coonamble talent out of position and out the back in 4.56 seconds. The bull was scored 43.25 points.
See his ride on Instagram.
Matt Triplett took the round win with a 89.25 point ride aboard Little Tucker (Patterson/Halpain). Eduardo Aparecido won his rematch with Mr. Majestic (Cordy McCoy/Bruce Wold) for 89 points and a second-place finish while Jose Vitor Leme closed the gap between himself and Pacheco with 88.75 points on Swamp Wreck (BS Cattle Co./Ace of Spades/Red Laces Cattle Co.) which was good enough to finish third.
PBR World Finals Round 2 Preview
Round 2 of the PBR World Finals is typically the toughest single long round of the season and consists of the best bulls that PBR livestock director Cody Lambert can muster. Compared to the ABBI Classic pen that we saw last night, every bull in a step up. They are difficult, faster and stronger than the rest.
We usually see around 8-10 bulls covered on nights like these with most making the end of season highlight reels.
All of the bulls that are competing for World Champion Bull will get their first out in this round.
Aussie Matchups
Nathan Burtenshaw v Canadian Mist (TNT Bucking Bulls/HRC – Hart Cattle)
Burtenshaw will look to bounce back after his Round 1 buck off against a bull that we have seen covered twice in the second half of the PBR season. Canadian Mist carried Jess Lockwood (91.5 points) to a 15/15 Bucking Battle win in Tulsa and Luciano De Castro (92.5 points) put up the high marked ride of the event to win in Austin.
Canadian Mist has been out 19 times with just the two left-handed cowboys successful. All nine right handed-riders have bucked off early. Probably not the best news for the right-handed Burtenshaw.
He will be around to the left out of the gate and can put in some big, powerful leaps forward during his spin. If Burtenshaw can make it past the inital turn back and settle into the ride with a good seat he will go a long way to getting a score.
Lachlan Richardson v Cochise (Gene Owen / Jane Clark)
It could be a tough night for Richardson. Cochise has only been covered by 1 right-handed rider in his career with a 95.83% buck off rate. He has only been ridden 10 times from 63 outs with an average bull score on the Premier Tour of 44.09 points.
Cochise is a big and strong bull that usually takes a few big, wild jumps out of the chute and turns back to the left. He throws a lot of moves at the rider after the turn back, so the rider has to stay alert for the full 8 seconds.
These two have matched up previously. Way back in the 15/15 Bucking Battle at Sioux Falls in 2016. The bull won in 3.11 seconds and put up 44.50 points.
ABBI Events
The opening night of the PBR World Finals was also Round 1 of the ABBI Classic Finals. Once again the draw played a big part in how this round played out. The chute routines and tactics employed by some of the riders really is something that the PBR and ABBI need to look at with some bulls not given a chance to compete at their best.
Hocus Pocus (Barthold / Almand / D&H Cattle) finished atop the leaderboard with 90.6 points in his impressive dispatch of J.B. Mauney. Bandit (88.8 points), Prayer Warrior (88.4 points), Budakon (88.2 points) and Proctors Pride (88.2 points) rounded out the top 5.
Twenty-two bulls remain in the hunt for the Classic Finals win and they will be back on Saturday night for Round 4.
The first half of the ABBI Finals Yearlings competitions were also completed yesterday morning. Tom & Peggy’s 767 HWR 767 was the high marked out of the morning with 89.40 points to lead the way. 03E Dark Knight (Payson Parker/D&H Cattle) sits second on 88.2 points with 71E Deets (D&H Cattle/Flinn) just behind on 88.0 points.
Up Next
Friday night we will see riders face a rider-friendly and well-known pen of bulls for Round 3 of the PBR World Finals.
The second half of the ABBI Finals Yearlings competitions will be run early this morning so we will see if 767 HWR 767 can hold on for the win.
The PBR will also hold a Founders and CEOs Question and Answer session in the Fan Zone.
You can tune into RidePass for Round 2 of the PBR World Finals from 12:30 pm AEST on Friday to watch all the action from T-Mobile or you can head to my Live Updates page where I will once again be posting ride scores, pictures and videos.