Dougherty’s Decision to Not Turn out of Gooding May Lead to Eventual World Finals Qualification
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Chase Dougherty was having some second thoughts about competing at the Proud Source Water Idaho PBR Classic, presented by L5 Bucking Bulls, this past weekend.
Dougherty’s 2020 was essentially a wash after missing the first two months of the year recovering from reconstructive right shoulder and having a series of rodeos cancelled amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2018 National Finals Rodeo bull riding winner was also sitting in 88th place in the PBR world standings after only competing in four PBR events, not including the Monster Energy Team Challenge, which did not offer world points.
Dougherty was kind of thinking that maybe it was time to rest up for 2021 and turn out of the Touring Pro Division event in Gooding, Idaho.
“I was like, ‘Well, shoot, I have been rodeoing, and it is the end of the year. I don’t really have a shot anymore anyways. I am 88th. Screw it. I don’t want to go.’” Dougherty recalls telling his wife, Kara.
However, Kara, believed there was no reason for Chase not to go.
“No, you should go,” Kara told him. “That doesn’t matter. You might win some money.”
Chase was lucky to have listened to his wife.
Dougherty is now very much in the hunt for the 2020 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast following his 2-for-2 victory in Gooding on Saturday night.
The first PBR Touring Pro Division victory of Dougherty’s career earned Dougherty 15 world points and launched him 24 spots up the world standings.
“I will be honest, I wasn’t going to go to Idaho,” Dougherty told PBR.com this week. “My wife kind of talked me into going. She is kind of the reason I won it.”
Dougherty earned the win with an 89-point ride on Super Short after riding Be Cool for 86 points earlier in the evening at the Gooding Rodeo & Fair Park.
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Got both my bull down at the @pbr in Gooding, ID and got the win! Now back to Texas!
“It was huge,” Dougherty said. “I was at the point where I was going to go home and start doing some work around the house and start working out and healing up again for next year. I am now back to having that nose on the grindstone. Now that I have somewhat of a realistic shot at it, I definitely am taking it into a lot more serious consideration and paying attention to it.”
The 22-year-old will head into the two Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour events this weekend in Casper, Wyoming, with two opportunities to earn an invite to the Unleash The Beast’s PBR Express Ranches Classic, presented by Bass Pro Shops, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Oct. 10-11.
The two event winners in Casper will earn an invite to Tulsa.
Fans can watch both nights of Velocity Tour action exclusively on RidePass beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday and Saturday night.
Dougherty is only 62 points behind No. 35 Silvano Alves in the world standings. One rider can earn a maximum of 44 points at a Velocity Tour event with an event average victory (30 points) and two round wins (7 points per round).
Even more so, Dougherty only needs 47 points over the course of the two events in Casper to possibly get himself in contention for an Unleash The Beast alternate spot.
“I know if I can get in there in Casper this weekend and I can stay on my bulls, I have a shot to going to one of those UTBs possibly,” Dougherty said. “Then if I can do good at one of those UTBs, who knows, because that is where the real points are at.”
Dougherty is set to face some stiff competition at the Casper Events Center. Friday night features two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood, world No. 6 Daylon Swearingen, No. 16 Alex Cerqueira, No. 27 Joao Henrique Lucas and No. 33 Dakota Louis.
The five Top 35 riders will then head to Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Unleash The Beast’s PBR Wrangler Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, on Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, a handful of talented PRCA riders will be looking to also join Dougherty and get in the mix for the World Finals with PRCA No. 2 Ky Hamilton and PRCA No. 3 Boudreaux Campbell in Casper this weekend for both Velocity Tour events. Campbell is No. 48 in the world standings, and he trails Alves by only 31.84 points.
“I would rather them stay home because that means there is more money for me,” Dougherty said with a laugh. “I know these guys can ride these bulls, but for some reason they chose to rodeo like I did. I enjoy seeing all the guys.”
There is also the possibility for Dougherty and all of the riders in Casper outside of the World Finals picture at the moment to attempt to qualify for the 2020 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals on Nov. 6-7 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis is the No. 35 rider in the Velocity Tour standings with only 26 points.
The avenue for Dougherty to make a push for the World Finals is in front of him, and he knows he just needs to focus on taking care of his business and everything can potentially work out in his favor.
“It is less pressure, because pressure is when I don’t have an opportunity,” Dougherty said. “Now I have an opportunity. I just have to go do what I have trained myself to do. If I can do that, I will be fine.”
Dougherty concluded the PRCA season about $25,000 short of qualifying for the NFR.
“I was just coming back from injury for the most part,” Dougherty said. “I didn’t really want to go as hard as I could. I wanted to go to the rodeos I wanted to go to and if it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out. That was how I looked at it this year.”
The Canby, Oregon, bull rider admitted it took him some time to round back into full shape from his shoulder surgery, and that he has more in tank than the 4-for-15 performance PBR fans saw from him at the Monster Energy Team Challenge.
“Now I feel like I am actually back to close to 100%,” Dougherty said. “I look back and all the way through that team challenge, I wasn’t me. That whole part was a rough patch and I really didn’t realize it until now.”
Dougherty is healthy and reinvigorated now, and he is ready to use this final month of the season to try to work his way to first career PBR World Finals.
It is a new opportunity that almost never happened.
“I will try to relax, put it on cruise control,” Dougherty said. “Especially this time of year, because everybody is pressing and everybody wants to do the best that they can. But if you can just do what you have been doing all year, you are going to do better than everybody else because they are putting all that pressure on themselves.”
Professional Bull Riders – Proud Source Water Idaho PBR Classic Presented by L5 Bucking Bulls
Gooding, ID, 2020 – Event Leaders (Round 1-Round 2-Event Aggregate-Event Points)
1. Chase Dougherty, 86-89-175.00-15 Points.
2. Austin Covington, 86-83-169.00-8 Points.
3. Kyler Oliver, 87.5-0-87.50-7 Points.
4. Derek Kolbaba, 85-0-85.00-4 Points.
5. Keith Hall, 83.5-0-83.50-2.5 Points.
(tie). Kache Moosman, 83.5-0-83.50-2.5 Points.
7. Venn Johns, 82.5-0-82.50-1 Points.
Cody Casper, 0-0-0.00
Eli Vastbinder, 0-0-0.00
Kyle Jones, 0-0-0.00
Alex Santana, 0-0-0.00
Dylan Smith, 0-0-0.00
River Stephenson, 0-0-0.00
Cody Nance, 0-0-0.00
Dalton Rudman, 0-0-0.00
Trace Brown, 0-0-0.00
Laramie Craigen, 0-0-0.00
Conner Halverson, 0-0-0.00
Weston Hartman, 0-0-0.00
Ryan Prophet, 0-0-0.00
JC Mortensen [2], 0-0-0.00
JC Mortensen [1], 0-0-0.00
Tanner Willis [1], 0-0-0.00
Tanner Willis [2], 0-0-0.00
Jesse Borland, 0-0-0.00
J.T. Stevens, 0-0-0.00
Anthony Hopen, 0-0-0.00
Bryan Perry, 0-0-0.00
Cody Hudson, 0-0-0.00
Zac Osborne, 0-0-0.00
Zach Valderas, 0-0-0.00
Perry Schrock, 0-0-0.00
Brendon Averett, 0-0-0.00
Cody Loomis, 0-0-0.00
Matt Allgood, 0-0-0.00
Tracer Croy, 0-0-0.00
Paul Carrales, 0-0-0.00
Cody Miller, 0-0-0.00
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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