Round Four at a Glance

Every year, the day after the rank pen, I have a small let down in my bull riding enthusiasm.  Then the Classic bulls come out to play again and I can’t wait.  But later I look at my day sheet and it is…blank!  Except for three scores and a lot of doodles.

Why?  Partly because, in this Finals, you can’t get a bull score to save your life.  They throw one up there every now and then, but it’s sparse.  By last night I was truly agitated about it and at some point I gave up.  Not to mention that they couldn’t get the rider scores up there for a while either.

[Some bitterness about the lack of bull scores used to be here, but I took it out.  So tired of bitterness...]

So this was another cranky evening for me, made sadder yet by the fact that my neck of the woods was in the middle of a major storm and the cable, internet, and phone went out right in the middle of J.B Mauney’s reride.  And it didn’t go back up until too late this morning to get my morning missive out to my loyal subscribers.  (Bless you if you are among them and if you want to join them, click here!)

So, no bull scores, no end of Round Four for me, no early morning score reviews, no nothin’.  Just a sad little story of discontent and disgruntlement.

But yo ho!  The cyber umbilical cord has now been restored.  Addicted are we?  I believe we are.

* * *

A couple of things that stood out for me last night:

• Rainbow seemed to be finally rising to expectations with a score of 44.25 on a very nice out with Elton Cide.

• Back Bender not only won the Classic Finals, but he has also been purchased (not clear whether in full or in part) by Jeff Robinson.  Congratulations to Kent Cox, who, ever since the Whiskey's Rebel incident, is one of my new heroes.

• Black Widow had the high bull score of the night with 46, followed by Jimeny Cricket with a 45.75.  Nice going.

• And Caleb Sanderson?  Again, if you predicted him, I buy you yet another cup of coffee.  He looked perfect.

• Luke Snyder’s view of the Asteroid - Bushwacker contest was interesting.  He wondered if the scoring might have gone differently had the bulls been bucked back-to-back, rather than almost ½ hour apart.  Along those same lines, I watched both bulls' outs about 20 times and I remained confounded.  I still think Bushwacker got it, on intensity and on the fact that he had more time on which to be judged, but those bulls are really hard to judge against each other.

• The mounting injury report now includes Joe Baumgartner who fell like a tree when hit by the horn of Class 6 Kat, resulting in a concussion, a chin laceration, and a few broken teeth.  It also included another concussion for Ben Jones, a separated rib for Elliott Jacoby, and whatever might have happened after high winds left me bereft of connection.

• On the good news front, Jason O’Hearn is out of the ICU and may be discharged from the hospital tomorrow.

• Cody Custer did a very human and moving thing when Ben Jones went down.  After the medical team came out, he walked to Ben and put his hand on Ben’s foot and stayed there.  Prayer, laying on of hands, comfort, I don’t know what it was, but it was one of those moments that shows a man’s character. 

* * *

The five high-marked rides:

Stormy Wing - 90.25
Guilherme Marchi - 90.00
Rubens Barbosa - 88.75
Pete Farley - 88.50
Robson Palermo - 88.00

Event Average Race:

Here I've put the riders who moved up in the race in blue, the ones who fell in rank in red, and those with no change in black.  This is crunch time.

1 Caleb Sanderson 348.25
2 Rubens Barbosa 264.75 
3 Guilherme Marchi 264.5 
4 Robson Palermo 263.25
5 Silvano Alves 254 
6 J. B. Mauney 247 
7 Valdiron Oliveira 177.5 
8 Pete Farley 175.75 
9 Aaron Roy 175.25 
10 Jock Connolly 174.75


The World Finals title race:
1. Silvano Alves - 13161.50
2. Valdiron de Oliveira - 11111.50
3. Robson Palermo - 9727.75
4. Guilherme Marchi - 8483.50
5. Austin Meier - 8,130.75

Note: Last night Guilherme Marchi passed Austin Meier, taking fourth place.

High-marked bulls:  

Black Widow - 46 - (Lufkin)

Jimeney Cricket - 45.75 (Box K/Universal)
Poker Face - 45 (Box K/Universal)
Delco - 45.50 (Hebert)
Back Bender - 45.25 (Ackerman/Cox)
Bad Blake - 45  (Lightning C)

V-5 - 44.75 (Wilson/Foutch)
First Nation Sensation - 44.75 ((Girletz)
Pure Smoke - 44.50 (Ohl/Beshears)
Carney Man - 44.50 (Dakota/Berger)
Pandemic - 44.50 (Boyd/Floyd)
Rainbow - 44.25 (Circle T)
Sancho - 44 (Circle T)
Santiago - 44 (Clymer)
Charlie Bullware - 44 (Moreno)

Today's schedule:

All times are Eastern Time, all events live streamed except for the Round Five/Six coverage, which is on NBC.  Please check your local listings for NBC.

12 p.m. Red Carpet Entrance
4 p.m. Round Five on NBC
11 p.m. Awards Banquet