PUEBLO, Colo. – In one week the top bulls in the PBR will be amidst their final quest toward the ultimate goal of claiming the 2015 World Champion Bull title.
Here is a brief look at the seven 2015 World Champion Bull contenders and some of their best outs of the regular season.
Jared Allen’s Air Time
2015 BFTS Stats
BFTS Outs (Ridden): 8 (0)
BFTS Average Score: 45.13
Best 2015 BFTS Out: 46.75 points against Kasey Hayes (4.21 seconds)
Said Hayes at the time: “One of these days I am going to ride him for a lot of points. I was trying my balls off and I hate it when I am trying that hard to ride one and I just get it handed to me like that. He has had that same trip with me both times, but I have seen completely different trips out of him that are probably in fact harder to ride.”
Lambert’s Take: “Air Time has a tricky jump out of the chute and has the ability to get really high in the air. He always spins to the left, but most of the riders don’t get to the spin.”
Smooth Operator
2015 BFTS Stats
BFTS Outs (Ridden): 15 (1)
BFTS Average Score: 44.72
Best 2015 BFTS Out: 46.5 points against J.W. Harris (2.44 seconds) in Seattle.
Said Harris at the time: “He is very deceiving. He looks like he is really hopping and skipping real bad and I was focused on really setting my hips, so I had weight on my feet and that was the bad thing to do on him. I did the exact wrong thing on him. Whenever he turned back, he went right and kind of had me stuck over here to the left a bit and kind of on my butt. Then he just yanked the rope out of my hand and shot out of there.”
Lambert’s Take: “Smooth Operator has had one off day in his life back in April in Billings with Guilherme Marchi. He’s got a good amount of kick, incredible speed and lots of whip to the outside.”
SweetPro’s Long John
2015 BFTS Stats
BFTS Outs (Ridden): 11 (2)
BFTS Average Score: 45.41
Best BFTS Out: 46.75 points against Nathan Schaper (3.45 seconds) in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Kasey Hayes (6.49 seconds) in Billings, Montana.
Said Schaper at the time: “You just have to do things right. You can’t screw up. I never got on time with him. I don’t know why I left bad. I was just out of time from the get-go and then you feel everything.”
Lambert’s Take: “Long John is really strong. He gets his front end off the ground and he kicks and breaks over. He is pulling riders forward and over his head. He usually spins to the left at just medium speed, but he is so strong that a rider has to do everything perfect to ride him.”
Stone Sober
2015 BFTS Stats
BFTS Outs (Ridden): 6 (0)
BFTS Average Score: 45.08
Best BFTS Out: 46.25 points against L.J. Jenkins (1.51 seconds) in Kansas City, Missouri.
Said Dillon Page at the time: “He was outstanding tonight. That is him most of the time. Just once in a while he has a spazz attack. He is just really hot blooded and it has just taken a long time to get him to settle down. The more you use him, and the more you work him, it seems to take a little edge off him so he is not so hard to contain.”
Lambert’s Take: He is wild and you never know what you are going to get with him, but you know it is going to be excited. He is as fully gifted as Air Time, but a little more unpredictable.
Bruiser
2015 BFTS Stats
BFTS Outs (Ridden): 7 (1)
BFTS Average Score: 45.29
Best BFTS Out: 46.25 points against Renato Nunes in Springfield, Missouri.
Said Nunes at the time, “He bucked pretty good. He had better kick than before. He turned back to the right at 7 seconds and he caught me. He was hopping a lot, and I didn’t have enough fast moves to pick it up with him. He beat me this time. I hope to get on him again at the Finals and win some go rounds over there.”
Lambert’s Take: “While he’s a Classic bull, I think he’s got to be in the running for World Champion as well. I would have never thought a bull could win the ABBI Classic division and the PBR in one year, but it’s looking like it might. Bruiser is consistent, and he can bring it for 8 seconds.”
Roy
2015 BFTS Stats
BFTS Outs (Ridden): 6 (0)
BFTS Average Score: 45.38
Best BFTS Out: 46.25 points against Cody Nance at Last Cowboy Standing.
Said Nance at the time, “One of the rankest bulls I’ve ever been on and my favorite bull to get on right now going.”
Lambert’s Take: “Roy has a sharp first turn to the left and then he blows, spins and drifts across the arena as he is spinning. He has a lot of speed and is really fun to watch. I don’t ride anymore, but I think he would be the easiest one to ride out of these top bulls because he is really showy and is worth a lot of points for anyone that is able to ride him.”
Jeremiah
2015 BFTS Stats
BFTS Outs (Ridden): 10 (0)
BFTS Average Score: 44.1
Best Out: 45.5 points against J.W. Harris (3.31 seconds) in Tucson, Arizona.
Said Harris at the time, “He is just a smart bull. He never does the same thing twice. When you try to ride him that son of a buck is going to leave so damn fast it just will take a little bit of luck to ride him without a whole lot of problems.”
Lambert’s Take: “Jeremiah has been bucking for over two years – nearly two years on the Built Ford Tough Series – and no one has ridden him yet. Earlier in his career, he bucked everyone off so fast that it looked like he was leaning out of the spin before he bucked them off. So I didn’t trust him, not even enough to take him to the Finals last year.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
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