There’s just one more event left after Allentown, Pennsylvania, and there’s still time for bulls to make it onto PBR livestock director Cody Lambert’s World Finals Roster. But, there’s not much room left on the list, and a there are a lot of hopefuls lined up. Where we might sometimes see a lot of East Coast based bulls at an event this far north and east, there are a lot of bulls coming to Allentown from far away.
“Chad Berger has 27 bulls on his truck,” Lambert said. “Jeff Robinson has 12, Gene Owen has 12, and so over half the bulls are coming from a distance. Jeff is based on the East Coast, but his bulls go everywhere. There’s enough time between Allentown and the Finals that we’ll see a lot of Finals bulls here. Last year that wasn’t the case. So a lot of the bulls we’ll see here are either already on the list or they are hoping to get on it.”
Lambert has a few spots left for just the right bulls, and some of them will get their shot in Allentown.
“I’ve got 95 bulls on the list right now,” Lambert said. “I have 10 more to go. I expect to put a couple on after Allentown, and a couple after Tucson, and then I’ll go to my alternates, and there are a lot of very good bulls to fill it out with. I don’t think I’ll get as many as five bulls from each of the last two events, because a lot of the bulls at Allentown are already on the list. I’m really looking for bulls that guys can be 88 (points) or more on if they ride them. The bulls that are already on the list, they can come off if they have a bad day in Allentown, and so it’s an important time of year for bulls. If a bull is not at his best right now, it could cost him.”
Allentown will host the last 15/15 Bucking Battle of the season, and the pen of bulls set for that is impressive. Smooth Operator, Little Red Jacket and Walk Off are here, along with Brown Sugar, Boot Jack, and Who Dey. Crowd favorite Mississippi Hippy will go up against Silvano Alves. But in the World Champion bull race, Smooth Operator is the highest-ranked bull we will see here.
“Smooth Operator is definitely one of the top two contenders right now,” Lambert said. “Air Time is the other one, and he sure looked good last week. Little Red Jacket has that kind of potential, but I think he’s a little behind the other two right now. There are a lot of really good bulls in the 15/15 here. Brown Sugar, Who Dey, Walk Off, Semper Fi, and Boot Jack are all great bulls, but they are all less difficult than Smooth Operator. Unless he has a bad day like he did once before this season, it’s going to be tough for any rider to get by him. He may be one of the hardest bulls to get a qualified ride on right now.”
Allentown kicks off Friday with Round 1 and the 15/15 round, and concludes Saturday with Round 2 and the Built Ford Tough Championship Round.
Follow Slade Long on Twitter @Probullstats
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