Official rides prove scarce in first night of PBR World Cup

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, April 17, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

The stars of the first night of the Professional Bull Riders World Cup were not available for comment after the event.

That’s because the standouts weren’t the riders but the bulls. Out of 50 rides Friday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, only 14 qualified as official and able to receive a score by lasting at least eight seconds.

The bulls out-classed the riders.

“I think those are the best bulls we’ve ever had in the history of the World Cup,” said Adriano Moraes, captain of Team Brazil.

Brazil came out the leader by nearly 100 points after the first two rounds of the World Cup, which pits bull riding’s five best countries against each other in a team competition.

Australia and the United States are in second and third, respectively, and are still in striking distance. Canada and Mexico round out the bottom of the standings.

Two more rounds will be contested Saturday night at Thomas & Mack, with the final two coming Sunday afternoon.

“We’re not going to calm down,” Moraes said. “We’re just going to keep on riding and see what happens at the end.”

Brazil’s Guilherme Marchi, 2008 PBR world champion, was the only rider to successfully complete both of his rides without being bucked off.

But names like Big Tex, Voodoo Child, Silver Wings and Airwolf dominated the night.

“The quality of bulls here is much better than any other country we’ve been in so far,” Moraes said.

The Americans' best ride came from McKennon Wimberly, a Texas native, who stayed on Hank for the full eight seconds.

The judges awarded Wimberly with a score of 90.25, the second highest of the night. The top score belonged to Brazil’s Renato Nunes, who fought off the fierce bucking of Paycheck to earn a 90.5.

“That helped us a lot,” Moraes said. “We were a little worried at that time because we needed one more solid ride. That’s exactly what Renato did.”

Nunes’ ride was the final one of the first round. He celebrated the score announcement by completing a back flip off of the top of the chute.

His second-round ride didn’t go as well. He was thrown off of Sure Fire, a bull he had ridden successfully in the past.

“I was certain I could ride the second bull,” Nunes said through a translator, “so I was a little disappointed.”

It wasn’t an ideal night for the United States team, which has won the last two World Cup titles.

But the Americans got off to a similar slow start in Sao Paulo, Brazil, last year, before coming back to win. Brazil knows America will be a threat as the weekend progresses.

“It just hasn’t worked so far,” Moraes said. “They will catch up and they will pick it up just like they did in Brazil, but hopefully not good enough to win.”