With the World Finals just two weeks away, and Pennsylvania being a long way from Las Vegas, we won’t see many Finals bulls in Allentown this weekend. If you remember the last week of last season, Allentown will be very similar to the event in Hollywood, Florida. More than half the bulls were ridden there, and four different riders went 5-for-5 counting the 15/15 bucking battle.
PBR livestock director Cody Lambert says that because only two bulls on the World Finals list are coming to Allentown, the overall pen may be even softer than it was last week in Biloxi, where we saw 36 qualified rides in two days.
“We won’t have Asteroid and Mick E Mouse,” Lambert said. “They’ve gone home to rest. A couple of bulls have moved up to fill out the short round. We’ll probably see a lot of qualified rides like we did last week, and it will come down to who has the three best rides. Like last week, a guy that keeps a low score in any round won’t win it.”
There are a couple of bulls set for Allentown that will be going on to the Finals. K Bar C’s Mississippi Hippy and New Frontier Rodeo’s UR Next are both on Lambert’s list, and both will be in the short round on Saturday.
“Mississippi Hippy is a finals bull for sure,” Lambert said. “He’s been ridden a couple of times this year, but he’s stayed strong. At Nashville I thought he was the best bull there. He lives in Ohio, so this is not a long trip for him. He’ll go home on Sunday and he won’t have to be in Las Vegas until the next Sunday, so he should have a few days rest at home before getting back on the truck.
“UR Next is a pretty new bull,” Lambert continued. “He’s been to a couple of events this year, and he’s looked good. He’s on my Finals list right now. He could have a bad day here and get cut still, but looking at his numbers he’s been very consistent.”
In Hollywood, Florida, last year, we saw a lot of bulls get ridden, but there were a few bright spots. Some of those bulls turned out to be pretty reliable performers and we’ve seen some of them do very well this season. There are probably some up and coming bulls in Allentown this week that we’ll see more of next season. A few of them already have Lambert’s attention.
“Jeff Robinson has one that we haven’t seen yet,” said Lambert. “Big Tex Bucks was in the draw in Biloxi last week, and he fought the chute really bad. Billy Robinson couldn’t get out on him and got a reride. But, I’ve seen some video of him, and he looks like he’s going to be really good. He looks like the kind of bull that the riders will love. Chad Berger has one — 46X Locomotion — that he’s really high on right now. Justin Cornwell has a bull called Fire Bender that we took to Nashville, and he was pretty good there, but they found out after the event that he had an eye problem and couldn’t see out of one eye. His eye has cleared up and he can see now, so I expect him to do better here.”
Some of the bulls we saw last week in Biloxi are headed to Pennsylvania, along with a mix of bulls from east of the Mississippi river that we don’t get to see very often.
Follow Slade Long on Twitter @Probullstats
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