Bulls get best of cowboys in Vegas
BY DWAYNE ERICKSON, FOR THE CALGARY HERALD OCTOBER 27, 2011
This is the point in the season where Canada’s premier bull rider always shines.
But, Aaron Roy let one get by him during Wednesday night’s opening round of the $2.2 million Professional Bull Riders world finals at Las Vegas.
He drew one of the picks of the litter called Rainbow and the outlaw was expected to be easy meat for the Saskatchewan rancher. But the bull, covered in his previous five trips, put Roy on the ground in 4.4 seconds. The bull was marked a decent 43.75 points, which means if Roy had gone the eight-second distance, he would have scored a tidy 86 to 88 points.
The opening round was supposed to be an easy test for the world’s 45 leading bull riders. The pen of outlaws they faced consisted of relatively untested three and four-yearolds. But, they proved to be a handful. There were only nine qualified rides. Florida’s Caleb Sanderson, ranked 27th in the PBR, topped the field with a score of 88.5 points.
There are two others Canadians on the roster – the 2008 rodeo champion Tyler Thomson, from Longview, and Saskatchewan’s B.C. transplant Dusty Ephrom.
The confident Thomson, who has won more than $100,000 this year on the rodeo and bull riding circuits, was thrown off by something called Goober in 3.38 seconds, while Ephrom was unseated by one called Shepherd Hills Tested in 5.67 seconds.
The finals continue nightly through Saturday and wind up Sunday afternoon.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
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