D&H Cattle Company Believes Sweetpro’s Bruiser Can Contend for 2020 Yeti World Championship
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Three-time YETI World Champion Bull SweetPro’s Bruiser has yet to buck on the Unleash The Beast in 2020, but that does not mean a push for a fourth world title is out of the question for the legendary athlete.
H.D. Page said last week that he had hoped to buck SweetPro’s Bruiser in PBR competition in recent weeks before the PBR had to put its season on hiatus because of the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak across the United States.
D&H Cattle Company had been working Bruiser back into bucking shape with the goal of bucking him in late March, and had hauled him to two rodeos in the winter.
Page said last week he had seen enough in San Antonio and Arlington, Texas, to make him believe Bruiser could once again contend for a PBR World Championship.
Bruiser debuted in 2020 with an impressive 47-point bull score at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo for bucking off Stetson Wright in 6.61 seconds. He followed that up with a 46-point score for 5.87 seconds of work against Ruger Piva. One month later, Bruiser bucked off Boudreaux Campbell in 2.75 seconds for a 45-point score at The American.
“I was going to make sure he could be on top of his game, and I think out of those three trips, I felt like he was pretty close to there,” Page said. “I am going to try (to bring him back this year).”
Page explained that Bruiser’s first out in San Antonio was the one that really stood out.
“I thought his best out was when Stetson had him,” Page added. “He was going to be that good or better the second time down there I felt like, but he just got a little too close, and he had to adjust himself to get around the post there that second time in San Antonio. That ground was so hard at The American. He hit so hard right around there that it kind of slowed him up just a touch maybe. But anyway. I think that was the deal there. He still bucked hard and, of course, a guy didn’t ride him.”
So what does Page expect from Bruiser in 2020?
Page has said for years now that Bruiser has nothing left to prove, and rightfully so.
Bruiser is tied with Bushwacker and Little Yellow Jacket for the most World Championships in PBR history. He is an ABBI Classic champion, and he is one of only two bulls in history to have a PRCA Bull of the Year title on his resume as well as a PBR World Championship.
“I am just going to try and give him the best opportunity to win the world title,” Page said. “If it wasn’t for that world title I would probably be breeding him.
“That is always the reason to even buck him, especially now. Shoot, he is 9 years old, and he has had a lot of outs. He has had more outs than most bulls. A lot of bulls never get half that many outs in their whole career.”
Bruiser has been a dominant road warrior for years, bucking all over the United States at least 124 times, according to ProBullStats.
Bruiser is 53-15 on the premier series, and has helped bull riders win millions of dollars since he debuted in August 2014 with a 6.8-second buckoff of Scottie Knapp in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Thirteen of Bruiser’s 15 qualified rides have been for 90 or more points.
“He’s still got it,” Page said. “That was the whole thing. I don’t want to turn a three-time World Champion into a good long rounder. I have seen that happen in the past, and I have always thought I am never going to do that. That is still my goal not to do that. I think I am not (doing that) yet.”
Page added that he knows riders will still find ways to reach the 8 seconds on the legendary bovine athlete. Bruiser has always had perfect timing for the top bull riders, and Page does not expect that to change in 2020 even with Bruiser a year older.
“Guys are going to have a shot to ride him no matter if he is on top of his game or not,” Page said. “That is just his style of bucking. He is the epitome of what a bucking bull is supposed to be. When they are trained and on top of their game, (riders) are going to have a shot if they don’t make a mistake.”
The 2020 YETI World Champion Bull will be the bull with the highest combined average based upon his top eight regular-season premier series outs and two outs at the 2020 World Finals (Nov. 4-8) in Las Vegas.
Here is how the bull standings look with the PBR currently on hiatus.
1. Chiseled (45.83; 3 outs)
2. Smooth Operator (45.70; 5 outs)
3. Air Support (45.69; 4 outs)
4. Hocus Pocus (45.35; 5 outs)
“There are five or six really good ones, and (Bruiser) fits right there with them,” Page said.
Bruiser finished fifth in the YETI World Champion Bull race last season with a 45.25-point average, ending his pursuit of a record-setting fourth world title. However, Bruiser missed the majority of the second half after he spent a week in the hospital with a life-threatening intestinal infection and a fecal impaction.
Bruiser, who lost 250 pounds because of the illness, eventually made a healthy recovery and bucked once at the 2019 World Finals. 2012 PRCA champion Cody Teel rode Bruiser for 91 points in Round 2 in Bruiser’s only appearance.
Page believes things could have been different last season if not for the illness.
“I think if he don’t get sick last year, they have a hard time getting around him,” Page concluded.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
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