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Ridin Solo Making More World Finals Magic with One Out Left in 2023 Season

By: Darci Miller

FORT WORTH, Texas – Stock contractor Cord McCoy has a unique job description these days.

“I feel like I’m kind of (Ridin) Solo’s butler, and I just spend the day taking care of him,” McCoy said. “He’s got three million viewers and 100,000 fans out there, so it’s my job to make sure he’s prepped and ready to go, wherever he goes.”

This week, Solo is going at the 2023 PBR World Finals in Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, and McCoy’s butlering is paying off.

In two outs at the World Finals, Solo has been nothing short of spectacular. He started with a 46-point trip against Dener Barbosa in Round 2 before bettering that with 46.5 points against Chase Outlaw in Round 4 on Thursday. He is now alone at No. 1 in the YETI World Champion Bull race.

“Solo, for some reason, he loves Fort Worth, and I don’t know why he does so good,” McCoy said. “He kind of started dragging a little bit at the end of the year. We’d been going week after week. He got here in Fort Worth and got settled in, and you knew he was going to have his best days. And when you come in behind those bulls like that, he had to. It’s almost like Solo read the script. He knew he had to be that much better than everybody else today. So I’m just thankful to stand behind him.”

As spectacular as Solo has been in Fort Worth this year, he was even more spectacular in Fort Worth last year. At the 2022 World Finals, he scored 45 points before exploding for two 47-point scores, snatching the YETI World Champion Bull title away from 2021 champion Woopaa.

Outlaw lasted just 3.54 seconds on Solo in Round 4.

“I thought we had an amazing match when I seen the draw several days ago and I seen Chase Outlaw,” McCoy said. “And Chase Outlaw brings so much to the table as far as testing those bulls and, in a sense, giving the bulls their best shot to show out. And I guess my first thought was that Outlaw would definitely ride him and be 95 points.”

That was not to be, as Solo and the rest of the rank pen allowed only three qualified rides in the Round – Joao Lucas Campos and Wingson Henrique da Silva tied for the round win with 89.5-point rides on Moonlight Party and Flyin Wired, respectively, while Jesse Petri scored 88.75 points on Mr. Right Now.

Solo bucked back-to-back-to-back with his closest competitors in the world title race. UTZ BesTex Legend scored 46 points against Aaron Williams, climbing from No. 3 to No. 2, just 0.07 points behind Ridin Solo. Cool Whip, who entered Round 4 tied with Solo for No. 1, scored an uncharacteristically low 44 points against Tyler Manor to slip to No. 4. Flapjack, who didn’t buck in Round 4, sits at No. 3, 0.13 points behind Solo.

“Oh, I’m shaking nervous,” McCoy said. “I mean, I’m nervous several weeks ago because you know you’re coming up to World Finals, and you know what you have to do. You spend hours staring at the stats of what you’re going to have to perform and how to prep these bulls. So I’m nervous, but I also think that the bulls can feel and sense the nervousness, so you really try to play it cool and not do anything different than what really got you here to start with. And the bull is everything, and I just try to stay out of his way and give him the biggest opportunities I can.”

In 2022, Solo was the underdog in Woopaa’s shadow, the upstart challenging the icon. Now, Solo is the veteran trying to fend off a new crop of young bovine competitors and riders who want to take a crack at the champ.

“I think after you come off a championship, everybody’s just looking for the chink in your armor, what he does wrong,” McCoy said. “And I told somebody yesterday, they was hard on Solo for leaving the chute (badly), and I was like, yeah, that’s like Michael Jordan not shooting free-throws very good. What do you do, not play Jordan? That’s him. I’ve never caught Solo not giving 110%. Whatever steps he does that might miss have never been a lack of try or want to. Even the idea to hurt a rider. It’s a true competition, and to me, he’s the best there is going today.”

The battle to officially determine the season’s best bucking bull concludes on Sunday in the championship round. The YETI World Champion Bull will be the bovine with the highest average of six outs from the 2022 PBR Team Series and 2023 Unleash The Beast seasons, plus two outs from the World Finals. The top contenders each buck three times and will drop their lowest score.

The margin between Solo and Legend is razor thin and nothing is guaranteed, with the stakes as high as they come. McCoy departed Dickies Arena on Thursday with his wife and daughter in tow, ready to head to bull housing to spend some time with the gregarious Solo.

It’s what he’s been doing all season, and he’s not changing it now.

“We’ll head to the pens tonight and hang out with him another hour, kind of let him stretch his legs and cool down, get a good meal tonight,” McCoy said. “He’s got a couple more days, and the last out for this year happens Sunday at 1 o’clock. So we’ll just do our best to prep him and get him ready for Sunday.”

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

© 2023 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.

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