The 2019 Traralgon Invitational winds up this run of Victorian PBR Australia Monster Energy Tour events until it resumes in June later this year.
Take a look my 2019 Traralgon Invitational Event Preview.
The bull pen’s contracted at the four previous Monster Energy Tour events in Shepparton, Bendigo and Ballarat have been hoving around the two-year average bull score of 41.35 points. Riders covered 35.37 per cent of their bulls over the same period.
Charged with the task of defending the Traralgon dirt will the 2018 PBR Australia Stock Contractors of the Year Throsby & Russell Bucking Bulls, Woodall Rodeo Company and Diamond S Bucking Bulls.
View the 2019 Traralgon Invitational Daysheet.
Round 1 Key Matchups
Round 1 gets underway with many of the young guns of the PBR engaged in Section 1 against bulls from TnR. Joshua Jones will get things underway with a matchup with The Donald (4-4 PBRA) with Harry Bridges taking on penmate Switch Back (3-4 PBRA).
Broken Halo (5-2 PBRA) rounds out the first section against PBR Australia’s No. 1 ranked Cody Heffernan.
Cliff Richardson will be first out in Section 2 against Woodall Rodeo Company’s Class Act (2-2, PBRA) with Matt Pfingst returning from injury to take on the unridden Mind Games (4-0, PBRA).
Lane Mellers and Bailey Woodard will go up against the Woodall pair of Hot Rock (3-1, PBRA) and Long Neck (PBRA Debut) respectively.
Finishing off the first half of the draw will be a trio of bulls from Diamond S Bucking Bulls including Buck (7-5, PBRA), who will go up
In Section 3, Troy Wilkinson will do battle with
Snitch (0-5, PBRA) has become a rider favourite, and Brazilian Robinson Guedes gets his chance to maintain the cowboy’s perfect record while Justin Robards has drawn On Point (12-9, PBRA).
Lachlan Richardson will be hoping to bounce back after a disspointing buck off last weekend in Yass, taking on McCrackin (1-0, PBRA) here in Traralgon.
In the final section of Round 1, Red Man (10-10, PBRA) gets a chance to turn the statistics back in his favour against Flávio Vinícius da Silva.
Lachlan Slade faces Woodall Rodeo’s Street Outlaw (1-2, PBRA) with Maycon Moura up against YTB (2-4, PBRA).
Mitch Paton takes on Uncle Tom (0-1, PBRA) who gave up a qualified ride in his debut in out at Ballarat last week while pen mate Chain Reaction (7-5, PBRA) has drawn Fraser Babbington in his return from injury.
Tyler Morgan rounds out Section 4 with a re-match against Business Hour (8-2, PBRA) from Adelaide earlier this season where he was 81-points at the whistle.
Check out the PBR Australia Website on Saturday morning for more in-depth analysis of Round 1 matchups in this week’s edition of The Morning Line.
Championship Round Pen
The ten bull Traralgon Invitational Championship Round pen looks a nice pen for the riders, and we could see multiple lead changes as the night draws to a close. TnR will supply the majority of the pen with bulls such as Lost Signal (10-9, PBRA) and Night Hawk (13-2, PBRA) waiting for the top-10 cowboys.
Checkout the 2019 Traralgon Invitational Championship Round.
Check back Saturday lunchtime for this week’s edition of the Ride the Rage Late Mail for the 2019 Traralgon Invitational.