L.J. Jenkins rides Red Alert for a score of 87.25 during the PBR World Finals on Sunday at Mandalay Bay. The 19-year-old rider leads the event with 268 points after three days of competition. Photo by Isaac Brekken/Review-Journal

L.J. Jenkins promised his mother he'd win the first PBR event he entered -- and she'd have to quit smoking when he did.

On the day he turned 18, Jenkins competed in his first PBR event in Gillette, Wy., and, as predicted, walked off the winner -- but his mother didn't keep up her end of the deal.

Now 19, Jenkins is trying to deliver on another vow he made to his mother -- winning the PBR World Finals.

So far, so good for Jenkins. After three rounds, he leads the event with 268 points and is one of only five PBR athletes to successfully ride all three bulls.

"I told my mom I was going to win it, and of course she said 'whatever.' But I told her I'd win the first PBR (event) I went to and I won that," said Jenkins, who finished fourth in Sunday's third round at Mandalay Bay with an 87.25-point ride on Red Alert. "She's starting to kind of believe me, but I'm not looking at that. I'm just trying to ride all my bulls and let everything else play out.

"I feel I can ride anything out here. I've just had my mind right and I'm taking care of business instead of going out. In Las Vegas, everyone wants to go out and have fun, but I've been going to bed."

Jenkins punctured his lung when a bull stepped on him at the start of the season in January and he was out close to two months before getting back in action.

"I came back 100 percent healthy, but my mental game was not there. The bulls I rode this weekend, there was no way I would've rode them back then," he said. "It took me almost a whole year to finally get my head right and to finally start riding like I used to."

After exploding onto the PBR scene on his 18th birthday, when he was still a senior in high school, the Texico, N.M., resident finished fifth in Laughlin last year, where he scored 93 points on highly-regarded bull Reindeer Dippin. He followed that up by winning last year's regular-season finale in Columbus, Ohio.

Feeling back to normal in recent weeks, Jenkins decided to give his mother another prediction.

"I just felt like I've been riding good the last few weeks and if I drew good, everything would work out, and it's worked out so far," he said. "She wasn't going to come (to the finals), but I surprised her and flew her out. But I put her up at another casino on the other side of town, so I don't have to put up with her. At least I flew her out."

Jenkins has put on quite a show for her, and thousands of other bull riding fans, thus far, doubling his career total of 90-point rides at the finals.

After posting two 90-point rides last season, Jenkins recorded two of them in the first two rounds of the finals, becoming one of only three bull riders in the last five years to post back-to-back 90-point rides in the finals.

He scored 90 points on Black Smoke in the first round and 90.75 on Sir Patrick in the second round, before successfully riding Red Alert on Sunday after getting bucked off the bull in 3.7 seconds earlier this season in Sacramento, Calif.

Only five bull riders have covered all three of their bulls in the finals -- Jenkins, two-time PBR World Champion Adriano Moraes, Wiley Petersen, Brian Canter and Rocky McDonald.

Nineteen of 49 riders covered their bulls in the third round.

Reigning PBR Rookie of the Year Kody Lostroh won the third round with an 88.75-point ride on Squaw Butte a night after getting bucked off Scene of the Crash.

"Everything just went perfect," said Lostroh, who pocketed $20,000 for the victory. "Shoot, they gave me a cool buckle and a bunch of money, so I can't complain."

Ross Coleman took second place with an 88.5-point ride on Squirt Gun and Cory Rasch placed third with an 87.5-point ride on Crooked Tooth.

Moraes, gunning for an unprecedented third world title, is tied for second in the event standings with Petersen, both sitting at 262.25 points.

Guilherme Marchi, who has only covered one bull in the finals, remains the points leader in the season standings, with 10,291.25.

Mike Lee is in second place with 8,836.75.

* BULL OF THE YEAR -- Mossy Oak Mudslinger was named the 2006 PBR World Champion Bull, providing a fitting end to a stellar career for the 1,750-pound animal owned by Page & Teague Bucking Bulls, which will retire the bull after this year's PBR World Finals.

Mossy Oak Mudslinger was ridden 27 of 92 times in his career and three out of eight times this season.