The Anaheim Report

The second PBR event of the year was a pretty good bull riding. Austin Meier has guts and Guilherme Marchi does too. Ty Pozzobon is very quietly riding really well.  Asteroid came out to play and Douglas Duncan picked him when he didn't have to.  It's always great when someone does that, and it's always great when the event goes down to the wire with the results hanging on the riding arms of two worthy riders.

The television schedule was not perfect, but the Live Event Center on Saturday was a home run.  The angles were good, the camera was close to the action, and one of the biggest stories of the event was the fact that Shorty Gorham unknowingly wore a live mic for the entire Live Event Center broadcast.  It made the LEC a fun place to be, because Shorty is a funny guy, and because he didn't know he was being broadcast, and because he was, let's just say, candid.

But maybe it's just a letdown from New York City, or maybe it's a pebble that's been in my shoe for quite a while now, but every bull riding is a story and we're only getting half of it.

I write a lot about bulls. I write about breeding. I study pedigrees, bloodlines, and lineages.  But starting with the Finals last year, broadcasts rarely show bull scores and the announcers don't talk about them.  If you can imagine watching a whole event where the riders' scores are not shown at all, and how that would affect your enjoyment, that's about how I feel.

Breeders and owners are watching and they can't see how their bulls are being scored.  Everyone's watching, but we're not seeing the whole deal.

The PBR is the best bull riding out there, brought to us weekly, on time, on television.  I love it.  I'm grateful.  I want bull scores.

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Bulls and Bloodlines: Anaheim

Douglas Duncan on Asteroid

High-scored Bulls:

781 Asteroid:  46.75 (Circle T)
961 Mac-Nett's Southern Wine:  45 (Jeff Robinson)
202 Bring It:  44.75 (Flying U/Cindy Rosser)
898 Pancho: 44.75  (Ace of Spades/Beach City)

Asteroid:

Craig Hummer, ever enthusiastic, called him the "center of the bull universe."  I thought he fought the chutes more than usual and that he was a little over-scored and not quite back to his usual form, but he still sent Douglas Duncan flying in about two seconds.  It will be fun to watch what he does when he gets used to being back on tour.

202 Bring It:

This bull has been on the circuit since 2007, his career buckoff average is almost 80%, and riders who make the whistle on him get high scores.  He's a Houdini son out of a Wolfman daughter, pure Plummer on one side and pure Kish on the other.  He's royalty, and this weekend he showed that he hasn't lost what it takes.  (Flying U/Cindy Rosser)

Pedigree Notes:

1072/7 White Wolf is a Werewolf son out of a White Water daughter.  (Flying U/Cindy Rosser)

64/7 Mr. Feiger is a Reindeer son out of a Typhoon daughter.  (Moreno/Thomas Rodeo)

10725/7 Remington is a Skat Kat son out of a Reindeer daughter  (Moreno/Oliveira)

898 Pancho is an Up in Smoke son. (Ace of Spades/Beach City)

868 After Party (Circle T) is pure Ratjen breeding.

717 Hannibal (Robinson) is a grandson of Kish's Wolfman on the sire side and Kish's Velvet Hour on the dam side.

-215 Amy's Pet (Robinson) is a son of Hot Damn.  His dam is a Broke Back V daughter.

Best Name:

Hell Pony.

Anaheim by the Numbers

The one thing I never dreamed I would love when I began to love bull riding was numbers. Surprise, surprise.  Here are a few from the Anaheim event:

90 + rides:  0

89+ rides:  3

46+ bulls: 1

45+ bulls: 1 

44+ bulls:  12 

Percentage of bulls ridden: 37% (compared to 51% in New York City)

Riders with 4 rides:  2

Riders with 3 rides:  1

Riders with 2 rides:  6

Riders with 1 ride:  15

Riders with 0 rides:  16

Number of riders out with injuries:  5 (Reese Cates, Pistol Robinson, Colby Yates, Shane Proctor, Pete Farley)

Number of riders who have been in the top five in both events so far this season: 1 (Valdiron de Oliveira)

Number of riders who have ridden in all nine rounds of the season: 0

Number of riders who have ridden in eight out of nine rounds: 1 (Valdiron de Oliveira)

Highest riding percentage so far this season:  87.50 (Valdiron de Oliveira)

Bulls with names you wouldn't want to have in high school if you were a bull:  I'm going with Sue, Old Betsy, and anything with .com in the name.

Number of  bulls with .com in the name: 1

Number of bulls with sponsorship names: 10

Number of bull scores seen on the banner at the bottom of the screen:  Pretty sure that was zero

Number of times Craig Hummer said the word "pounce" in the first five minutes of the broadcast: 2