Jestes Returns to Top Spot
Wyoming man moves to No. 1 by winning Bullfighters Only stop at Lewiston Roundup
Nate Jestes moves around 12x and Costa’s Anger Management while posting an 88.5-point score to win the Bullfighters Only tour stop in conjunction with the Lewiston (Idaho) Roundup. (KIRT STIENKE PHOTO)
LEWISTON, Idaho – Nate Jestes likes to take on a little work before he has some fun.
It’s an approach that has worked well for him during this inaugural Bullfighters Only season, and he proved it again over the weekend during the BFO tour event in conjunction with the Lewiston Roundup. Jestes was one of the protection bullfighters during the rodeo, then was part of the freestyle bullfight directly afterward.
“By working the protection side, it gets me to where I’m moving around the bulls and reading the bulls before I ever move over to the freestyle bullfight,” said Jestes, who posted an 88.5-point fight with 12x and Costa’s Anger Management to win the title.
By earning the Lewiston crown, he added $3,500 to his season earnings and returned to the No. 1 spot in the Bullfighters Only standings with $22,575. He owns a $1,838 lead over the No. 2 man, former leader Cody Webster of Wayne, Okla.
Throw in Weston Rutkowski of Haskell, Okla., and Ross Hill of Muscle Shoals, Ala., and it’s been a solid race for the top of the leaderboard much of the season.
Nate Jestes
“That has been fun,” said Jestes, who held the top spot for much of the season after winning The American in Arlington, Texas, in the spring. “With the bullfighting tour being absent for 16 years and this being the first actual tour of scheduled events, it’s been a great thing to see.
“To be able to have a standings and watch the race is outstanding. For so many years, there was never a true standings. It makes it fun when you go to events. To be able to have that incentive behind each bullfight is cool, too. It adds a twist to things.”
Jestes went through several twists and turns of his own during his bout with Anger Management, a little red bull that proved to be solid.
“He wasn’t crazy rank, and there were better bulls that poked their head out of a gate,” he said of the bull. “I had a middle-of-the-road bull, and I know I’d have to push on that bull to keep him fighting. I think I was able to draw a few more points out of him in the way I fought him. I had to go on the offense just to get a couple more points there.”
It worked well. Jestes threw several fakes at Anger Management, then lined out a jump before closing out the fight with a solid fake.
“The crowd absolutely loved the bullfight,” he said. “That crowd was really loud. That crowd not only saw some really good bullfights, but they saw some really good hookings, too. They loved the whole thing.”
So did Jestes, who returned to the top of the game.
RESULTS
1. Nate Jestes, 88.5 points
2. Cade Burns, 85
3. Weston Rutkowski, 82
4. Ross Hill, 78
5. Erick Schwindt, 77
6. Ross Johnson, 0
Courtesy of twisTEDrodeo.com