BULLS FINALLY LOSE

The bulls usually are snorting with laugher after each round of the PBR World Finals, and the bull riders are the ones on the losing end.

But in Friday night’s opening round at the Thomas & Mack Center, the bulls were left wondering what went wrong.

On a night when the air was calm, the bovines must have blamed it on a draft.

For the first time this year in the PBR and first time at the Finals, bull riders get to draft — select — the bulls they’ll ride. The top-ranked rider gets his pick of the pen, No. 2 rider goes next and so on.

Finally, the cowboys won.

A record 33 riders stayed aboard for eight seconds Friday night. The previous mark was 29.

The draft for Saturday night’s round of bulls will come from the tough “rank” pen. It’s scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Mandalay Bay.

MAUNEY WINS, GOES OVER $1 MILLION

J.B. Mauney of Mooresville, N.C., won the first round of the World Finals with a score of 92.25 on Ricky Bobby of HD Page/Bill & Betty Morrison. Mauney earned $25,000 for winning and a $5,000 bonus for being the night’s Enterprise “Ride with the Best” winner. The total puts his career earnings at over $1 million.

“The bull went real fast and I kept up with him,” Mauney said. “There were a lot of great bulls you could win on and seeing everyone ride made me want to stay on.”

As the Finals points leader, Mauney gets today’s first pick and said he’s leaning toward selecting Copperhead Slinger.

LOSTROH MOVES UP TO SECOND

Colorado’s Kody Lostroh tied with series points leader Guilherme Marchi with 90.25 rides Friday. He moved Lostroh to second in season points, but Marchi’s 13,634.25 points total extended his lead over fellow Brazilian Valdiron de Oliveira, who dropped from second to third when he was bucked off.

INJURY REPORT
Colby Yates of Fort Worth, Texas, sustained a concussion in the first round but is expected to ride Saturday night.