Sandro Batista Wins PBR Brazil’s Iron Cowboy Americana
By: Abner Henrique Therézio
Professional Bull Riders held the 10th edition of the Iron Cowboy Americana, one of the most traditional and exciting competitions in Brazilian arenas, this past weekend. Held on June 16-18, the competition that distributed more than 120,000 Brazilian reais in prizes was part of the program of the 35th Festa do Peão de Americana.
Once again performed with great success, Iron Cowboy crowned a historic partnership between the PBR and the Clube dos Cavaleiros de Americana. The partnership between the entities began in 2006, and since then, the PBR has held competitions in all editions of the event, which is considered one of the two biggest rodeos in Brazil.
“Being at the Festa do Peão de Americana, which is one of the biggest events in Brazil and a reference in our sport, is always an honor for the PBR, and I want to say a huge thank you to president Beto Lahr, João Frizzo and other members of Clube dos Cavaleiros de Americana for another year of partnership, for the confidence in having us at the event, and for all the support for our championship,” said three-time world champion Adriano Moraes, director of PBR Brazil.
This year, the PBR and the Clube dos Cavaleiros de Americana held a historic edition of Iron Cowboy, which, in addition to the record in prizes, had a selection of bulls at the height of competition and featured some of the best bull riding athletes in the world. The event, broadcast live every night, registered record audiences and engagement on social media.
Sandro Batista (Pedra Preta-MT) won the BRL 90,000 bonus by being the only one of the two finalists to get a score after successfully riding the four bulls he challenged on the decisive night of the event. Batista, who is part of the Carolina Cowboys in PBR Teams, won more than R$ 9,000 in bonuses during the rounds, closing the competition with more than R$ 99,000 in prizes.
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With the weekend’s performance, Batista rose to third place in the PBR Brazil standings, definitively placing himself as one of the favorites for the season’s title. Earlier this month, he also won the Last Cowboy Standing in Divinópolis, another PBR competition in a special format. He became the first competitor in history to win both competitions in the same year and pocketed more than R$ 160,000 with the two titles.
Batista got the job done during the Qualifying Phase of Iron Cowboy Americana and reached the Final Phase only in 11th place, needing to get a score on his bulls on Sunday night to advance in the competition. And that’s exactly what he did. He scored on the first three bulls of the night and reached the final, ending his event with a 91-point ride aboard Talismã (Tércio Miranda).
On the same night, he had also scored 88.75 and 89.5 points on Avião and Preço da Fama (André de Mogi) before scoring 88.75 points again in the semifinal aboard Back Drop (2Hoping Bucking Bulls) and securing one of the two places in the Final. In the Qualifying Phase on Friday and Saturday night, Batista scored 88.75 points on Rodamoinho (Paulo Emílio) and no points on Semelhante (FBM), the only bull that bucked him off in the competition.
Iron Cowboy Americana’s second-place finisher was the current PBR Brazil champion, Cássio Dias (São Francisco de Sales-MG), who led the entire competition but did not score in the Final. The young phenomenon from Minas Gerais, who had won the event last year, was looking to become the first two-time champion in the history of the competition. With this weekend’s results, he rose to sixth place in the national standings.
Bringing together the best bulls in Brazil today, Iron Cowboy Americana 2023 was marked by the quality of the rides. At the end of the competition, the title of Best Bull went to Texano (André de Mogi), who scored 45.25 points in the average of his two outs.
Another important highlight of the event was the participation of the Austin Gamblers, who came to Brazil to do their pre-season and competed in the arena of Festa do Peão de Americana. Seven athletes from the team participated in the event, including two-time World Champion José Vitor Leme and young talent Austin Richardson, who finished fourth in the competition. Ezekiel Mitchell placed 11th, Claudio Montanha Jr. 13th, Adriano Salgado 16th, Lucas Divino 19th and Leme 20th. Head coach Michael Gaffney, CEO JJ Gottsch, and members of the coaching staff also came to Brazil.
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The quest for the PBR Brazil championship continues with stages in Salta de Pirapora-SP (June 29-July 2), Frutal-MG (July 6-9), Morro Agudo-SP (July 12-15), São Gotardo- MG (July 20-23), Catalão-GO (July 24-27) and Anhumas-SP (August 3-5). The National Final will be held during the Festa do Peão de Boiadeiro de Barretos on August 17-20.
Final Ranking – Iron Cowboy Americana
1 – Sandro Batista, Pedra Preta-MT
2 – Cássio Dias, São Francisco de Sales-MG
3 – Leonardo Castro, Cassilândia-MS
4 – Austin Richardson, Dallas-TX (USA)
5 – Cladson Rodolfo, Pilar do Sul-SP
6 – Miguel de Jesus, Campo Limpo de Goiás-GO
7 – Felipe Furlan, Sales Oliveira-SP
8 – Rafael Parra, Mandaguaçu-PR
National Ranking – After Iron Cowboy
1 – João Lucas Campos, Porto Feliz-SP – 712.83 points
2 – Jean Fernandes, Crixás-GO – 578.25 points
3 – Sandro Batista, Pedra Preta-MT – 446.00 points
4 – Bruno Carvalho, Álvares Florence-SP – 444.00 points
5 – Felipe Furlan, Sales Oliveira-SP – 430.00 points
6 – Cássio Dias, São Francisco de Sales-MG – 388.25 points
7 – Gabriel Morais, São Francisco de Sales-MG – 302.50 points
8 – Maciel Santana, Ibirataia-BA – 302.16 points
9 – Rafael Parra, Mandaguaçu-PR – 289.66 points
10 – Luiz Américo Pereira, Timóteo-MG – 281.00 points
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