Campbell and Jaynes, the Young and the Restless are Ranked #3 on the Road to Cheyenne
#3 Boudreaux Campbell
In Cheyenne legends are born while on a bull’s back – where seconds are described as an eternity.
Picking up credentials for the first time inside Frontier Park will be eighteen year old Boudreaux Campbell who has learned to stay calm thru the chaos and keep his mind clear to be the number three ranked rider of Championship Bull Riding.
He entered the Road to Cheyenne in Huron South Dakota after qualifying last August in the first opportunity of the season after the 2016 CBR World Finals.
Rookies often get a lot of attention along the Road to Cheyenne. The media loves a good Johnny come lately story, the riders like teasing the new guy behind the chutes, and the fans like to cheer on the underdog.
In a perfect storm of favor, all of the above came true for the number 3 man on the CBR World Finals roster who won two event titles on his way to what can be characterized as a remarkable rookie year.
He instantly earned “chute cred” with this tough as nails and completely focused attitude on the back of the bucking chutes. He’s a left hander that at this moment is riding 50 percent of all bulls (2017) he gets on between CBR competition and the PRCA rodeo road.
“I only think of one thing: Don’t quit, don’t give up,” said Boudreaux, a Crockett, Texas native and recent graduate of Lovelady High School. “I just block everything out and focus on what I need to do, and I’m just reacting to what the bull is doing.”
At 18, Boudreaux is ranked No. 3 in the Championship Bull Riding World Standings and is sixth in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association Rookie Standings with 7,275.88 points earned. He is also a two-time Texas High School Bull Riding champion and has earned more than $40,000 in CBR winnings.
He rode in 15 of the 16 Road to Cheyenne televised tour events missing only Las Vegas. He attempted 34 bulls and heard the whistle on 18 of them. He advanced to the Semifinal round nine times and qualified EIGHT times for the final four Shoot Out round, an unprecedented number of appearances for a rookie rider.
“I love the adrenaline of getting on the back of a bull and conquering stuff that’s not easy to conquer,” he said. “I just love it deep down in my heart,” said Campbell in his first mainstream magazine cover story that featured the young cowboy last spring.
Boudreaux’s path to the sport at the pro level began when he was 4 years old and his father took him to a rodeo in Liberty, Texas.
“I watched the sheep riding there, and after that, I told him that’s what I wanted to do,” Boudreaux said. “I fell in love with it. And ever since then I wanted to be a world champion bull rider. I started out on calves and then moved up to steers and all of that. Now I’m at the professional level, living my dream.”
Boudreaux’s path to Cheyenne has not always been charmed. He suffered his worst bull riding injury a few years ago when a forearm cut became infected and after eleven days and five surgeries in a Dallas hospital, he and the arm were lucky to survive.
Those ups and downs make bull riding a “very humbling sport,” Boudreaux said. “One minute you can be on top of the world, and the next minute you can be at the very low end.”
Boudreaux would see the hospital again on February 4 when he was knocked out in Bossier City and air pockets developed in his lungs as well as a laceration to his liver. He would recover and compete two weeks later on the next Road to Cheyenne event after having to be convinced to stay overnight in the hospital by staff and friends.
His advice to anyone interested in bull riding is simple:
“If you want to start bull riding, just know that’s what you want to do and put all the work that needs to go into bull riding. Follow your dream and don’t give up.”
The Jaynes Gang may be ranked number three in the CBR World Finals Bull Team Challenge qualifying, but something tells me third is as good as first to the team Orchard ,Texas because along with the 33 points earned to finish third, they earned the largest amount of money for an individual team this season – $50,000.
The Jaynes Gang won first place in two of the three events they entered and were fourth in Del Rio.
Their Road to Cheyenne began in Huron in August at the season opener on night two when The Jaynes Gang, took home the $20,000 first place nudging out Jeff Harris by only .66 points. Jayne’s three bulls were 283 total points. Jaynes bucked 1925 Painkiller, 25T Destination Unknown, and 2575 Flab Slab, three very familiar bulls to the cowboys on the Road to Cheyenne. The winning team was the only team to post three qualified rides, a plan the team managers Billy Jaynes and Dennis Davis expected. Rookie Bayle Worden rode Painkiller for 90.5; Tyler Taylor was 87.5 on 25T Destination Unknown; and Taryl Smith was 89 points on 2575 Flab Slab.
“We brought three bulls the guys love to get on, all our bulls were solid tonight and had their usual trips, giving it their full effort and it worked out,” said Dennis Davis who hauled and flanked the Jaynes Gang team through the season. Champion Bull of the event was J908 Outside the Box, also owned by Jimmy Jaynes, who posted a 92 to earn that buckle.
Next up was Rio Rancho in January and again The Jaynes’ Gang triumphed in the BTC competition but this time winning by 7.1 points, one of the largest margins on this year’s Road to Cheyenne. It is not surprising that The Jaynes Gang won after rotating their bulls back to the winning combination that earned those checks, buckles and boots in Huron.
“The bull riders are really stepping it up, It’s easy to ride a bull that does the same thing every time, but when they start getting out of line, they really dug in deep tonight to make the eight second whistle and that is how our rides were tonight,” said Davis winning his second first place price package for the team.
“We rotated Tuve in at Jackson and he was pretty rank, so we went back to Flab Slab as he bucked really good recently,” continued Dennis. Boasting three ride scores totaling 288.5 points, EG1925 Painkiller was the highest ride score of the team’s three outs. Cody Rostockyj tied the round win with his 90.5 points on EG1925 while Josh Frost went 89 points on 25T Destination Unknown for the team’s second score. Bucking in the anchor position of the semifinal round was true blue Flab Slab who posted 89 with Denton Fugate.
Waiting until the last event of the CBR season was nerve racking for the Jaynes Gang, but it proved positive and the team took home a fourth place price worth $10,000 and 8 more points to solidify that team’s qualifying position for the World Finals. Bucking Tuve’, Painkiller, and 210 Chaos Ghost produced two qualified rides, but the buck off came with the Bull of the Event Honors for Chaos Ghost who mounted 91 points as he dismounted Sage Kimzey in 3.64 seconds during the Semifinal round.
Courtesy of CBR