It was an exciting last two rounds of the Canadian Finals up here in Calgary. Aaron Roy, who finished 13th at the PBR World Finals, went into the event with about twice the dollars of any other Canadian. He didn’t win the event, but was able to hang onto his $ lead to be crowned the PBR Canadian National Champion. “Its something I’ve been chasing for a couple of years and it feels so good to finally win,” stated the Champ.

The event winner was an Aussie who was visiting Canada for the very first time, Jock Connolly. Another Aussie, BFTS star Greg Potter, came back from a long injury to put on an impressive performance and make it back to the short go of 10 contenders. Other non-Canadian notables in the short go were Mike Lee (who had the lead before getting bucked off his fourth bull)and Beau Hill.

Eno/Kubinchak’s Unabomber won Bull of the Finals honors. Unabomber has had several trips to the BFTS including the World Finals. In Las Vegas, he bucked off Matt Bohon, Shane Proctor and Aaron Roy and was scored as high as a 46-making his high score and subsequent win at the Saddledome no surprise.

Greetings from Canada!

Braithwaite & Dansey’s Boogie Man had something to kick up his heels about last night- even though he didn’t buck in round two of the PBR Rocky Cup Canadian National Finals.

The great bull, who bucked in rounds 1 and 5 of the PBR World Finals, was announced as the 2008 Canadian Bull of the Year during last night’s event. In Las Vegas he bucked off Rocky McDonald (who is also competing here in Canada) but he didn’t get by Dustin Elliott who posted an 88.75 on him.

Boogie Man will buck tonight during the Final Round of the Canadian National Finals.  I’ll bring you the new Canadian National Champ news first thing tomorrow, as well as which man won the event (there are a handful of cowboys with two rides, so tonight’s two rounds will make it or break it for somebody).

Tom Teague was thrilled to have Bones, a bull to come out of his own breeding program, win the PBR World Champion Bull title. Bones was the last bull of the night, bucking off Guilherme Marchi. Marchi was also bucked off by Bones in Tulsa earlier this year. Bones cost Marchi a perfect 8 for 8 record and the finals event champion title- fellow countryman Robson Palermo rode the retiring Camo to take the event and edge out Marchi by about 3 points. But Marchi was thrilled to finally be the World Champion, and happy for Palermo!

On Wednesday Jerry Copp’s Copp Hou was definitely the best 2-year-old and was rewarded appropriately- $100,000 for being the Futurity Finals Champ!

D&H/Wiggins Crosswired won the Classic last night and a quarter-million! The reserve champ was Steve and Julie Ravenscroft’s Black Pearl, earning $100,000.

JB Mauney won his THIRD round and seems to be out to prove his critics wrong…

Adriano’s retirement party was a very moving tribute to his career. Literally thousands of fans, friends and fellow athletes came out to honor him.  It is hard to imagine not seeing him in the arena next season.

Justin’s retirement party last week was more of a “party” and laid-back and festive. It makes me feel old, I remember when I started working for the PBR and I couldn’t take Justin to bar promos because he wasn’t 21 yet!!!

There is so much going on in Vegas…. every day is an exciting new event. Yesterday the bull team competition finished up and it was D&H/Enlow/Gilbert who were $250,000 richer-edging out Lone Star and Yankton by just a quarter point!

Today the Futurity got underway and some bulls that everyone expected to do great had bad trips, like Super Freak (who fell over) and Hippy Music (who kicked the chute on the way out). Right now it is Lightning C’s Copp Hou who is leading it with a 91.5.

The Classic gets underway tomorrow, and the Futurity short go will be on Wed.

As for the riders, J.B. Mauney won the first two rounds and Ross Coleman and Brendon Clark split the third. Guilherme Marchi is riding great and it looks like he’ll b e able to hang onto a big enough lead to FINALLY win it all.

11 nice bull showed up for the third-stop on the ABBI Wild Card Series at the LA County Fiargrounds. The event, held in conjunction with the Guilherme Marchi Classic (part of the PBR’s Enterprise Tour) was great. H&H’s Myspace and Kish’s Beer Googles tied for first with an 88.25 apiece.

 The ABBI judges had to catch a plane as soon as the Wild Card was over, they judge the Wild Card in Georgia tomorrow. It will be exciting to see what bulls emerge from the last Wild Card and which have the top 5 scores and can make it to Vegas!

On the human side, Cody Ford won the event, just edging out Luke Snyder. Confidence in solid performances should give both men an edge this weekend in Oakland. Ford was thrilled, the $4,400 he won was much needed since he was sitting right on the bubble for qualifying for the PBR World Finals. My old friend Rob Smets was one of the announcers and it was great to see him, although I have a strong suspicion he would have preferred to have been on the other side of the fence alongside  Mad Dog and Quirt.

I am headed to LAX to catch a plane to Oakland, I’m excited to see another Bull Team event and to continue a long weekend of great bucking bulls!

This has been an action-filled week..with even more to come in Mesquite this weekend! A big congratulations to Steve and Julie Ravnescroft who won the big ABBI Breeder’s Cup Futurity in Stephenville. Way to rock out Hippy Music! Yet another success story to come out of the Ravenscroft’s great Whitewater cows!

After a decade of dating, Ty and Jewel tied the knot in the Bahamas over the weekend. Jewel has been a long-time supporter of not just Ty, but also the PBR. It will be nice to see the new Mr. and Mrs. Murray at an event soon!

I spent last week in Belize filming a TV show, I played myself (lol, it was reality)- an editor looking for a vacation propety in Belize. Will let you know when it airs in 2009. If you ever get a chance, go to Belize! Besides swimming with sharks and sting rays (yep, I did think of Steve Irwin briefly), I also got to hold and pet them! Granted it was only a nurse shark and only about 3 feet long, but still an amazing experience to hold a shark.

The weekend before last, I was at the BFTS in Glendale, Arizona. It may have been the heat or the distance some were hauled, but the bulls-especially the first night-looked sluggish. But by the short-go, the elite bulls looked to be at least 80% and put on a great show for fans and the riders.

Everyone is excited about Las Vegas. We are gearing up to do our Classic and Las Vegas preview issue of the Bull Pen, as well as the PBR World Finals program and the ABBI Classic Finals program. These are the editions to be in, so if you have thought of marketing your brand, program or bulls- call the FanCorp office asap (714-434-2579).

Just got back from Tulsa, where I saw the strongest pen of BFTS bulls I’ve seen all year! You couldn’t ask for a better event-great bulls and some jaw-dropping rides! Justin McBride is obviously back in fighting form-a 94.5 on Voodoo Child to win the event! But the high-marked ride went to Mike White who rode Troubadour for 95.75…. the highets score we’ve seen a cowboy earn in a LONG time.

Eight cowboys made it to the whistle in the short go, an impressive feat since Cody Lambert put together a championship round of super star buckers.

Tulsa was also the last ABBI Junior Futurity of the season and Trevor Terrell won his second $10,000 of the season for his amazing little bull 110 Spider Monkey (who definitely has an attitide…tried to hook pick-up man James Debord and his horse twice!) Trevor’s cousin Cory was the reserve champ with 119, keeping it a family affair.

Another two-time winner was Lone Star Bull Team. David Simpson, Scott Pickens and their partners claimed their second PBR Bull Team Challenge win. They have their eyes on the big dollar prize in Vegas, and with the performances their bulls have shown, they will be one of the top contenders!

On the ABBI end of things, Skat Jacket emerged victorious from a pen of 38 Classic bulls, winning over $12,700 for his 91.25. Way to go L&G Cattle Co.! The WBBC is going to be insanely good this year, based on the talent we’ve seen at these Classics.

From the 2-year-olds to the veterans, the bulls in Tulsa were truly terrific!

Congrats to Trevor Terrell (son of T-N-T’s Mitch Terrell) for winning $10,000 in Dallas!  Trevor is a great guy and I know his dad and uncle are proud of what he’s accomplishing in the bull business! His 659 Spotted Monkey earned an 86.75 and gave Trevor a performance to be proud of. 

 Page 55S (the winning bull in Ardmore) took second with an 81.75 for Cash Roberts/D&H. In third was Bailey Buck, whose Page S35 earned an 80.5. Dallas was another event where the future of our sport turned out in full force, filling up the 30 entries quickly.  It was a neat opportunity for the juniors to buck their bulls in such a large venue (the PBR’s Built Ford Tough Series event took place later that day). With the experience and confidence the kids (and their bulls) are gettting, I’d imagine Tulsa will be absolutely amazing.

Besides the Junior Futurity, Tulsa will also play host to the PBR’s BFTS event, a Bull Team event and an ABBI Classic. That is a lot of action over three days; they’ll be something for everyone so plan on attending if you can.

The third, and final, ABBI 2008 Junior Futurity is set for Tulsa on July 19.

If not, you missed a great event. There were so many good bulls and the really fantastic ones took home over $370,000 (it paid through 20th place). Not surprisingly, Page, Circle T and Boyd/Floyd had quite a few in the money. Lightning C also had some impressive performances and had 3 of the top 6 finishers! Steve and Julie Ravenscroft’s SJR 298 Hippy Music split 7/8 and another bull out of one of their cows finished in 13th (the Davis’ Off The Hook). It was refreshing to see some names that are relatively new to the Futurity game- like the Torres Bros. and D.J. Stull- finish in the money.

Another highlight of the event was undoubtedly the Junior Futurity. Boyd-Floyd Bull Co. has generously donated some SERIOUS cash to the series. First place winner Cash Roberts won $10,000 for his champion bull Page 55S. Second-place winner Karl Allen with JF666 also took home some big dollars and some Teague genetics!

Following the event, the D&H Futuritty incentive was held for those bulls purchased at the Page sale in 2007 as yearlings, getting the crowd excited about the Page prospects that would be sold the next afternoon!

Just returned from Ardmore….a GREAT American Heritage Futurity! Jerome and Tiffany Davis’ 691 Super Freak won big– 210 points and just under $100,000. This is a fantastic bull and everyone I talked to (which would be a heck of a lot of people), were unanimous in the opinion that he deserved to win it. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Jerome and Tiffany had been there in person to see their great 2-year-old take the title! Four points behind him in second was 65 Achey Hu from Lightning C Cattle Co. There were a lot of really good bulls and with 130 entered, it paid up to 20th place. Andee, Curt and the entire ABBI staff worked tirelessly and put on a top-notch event!

I am beyond exhausted and need to unpack, unwind and get some rest…but check back tomorrow for ALL the Heritage highlights and a recap of today’s legendary Bred To Buck Sale put on by the Pages!

Seems like everyone is already in Oklahoma… except me! I am doing my usual last-minute frantic packing and trying to get everything into a carry-on bag (including past issues of the Bull Pen I promised I’d remember to bring to Amber Schmutz, two digital cameras and two tape recorders… I believe in being a prepared journalist).

I got a call from Gene Baker earlier today. He has his bulls (Homestead Genetics) bucking at the PBR Elk City event Friday and Saturday night so he’ll be busy going between that and the Ardmore event. I imagine they’ll be a few ambitious contractors making the trek, which I hear is about 4 hours. But maybe that is hauling bulls… I’m an L.A. driver (when you finally get an open road, you make the most of it!) so I could maybe do it in 2 hours flat. I’d like to make it out to Elk City Saturday night, but we’ll have to see how it goes.

I hear the Pages are having a great “welcome” dinner tomorrow. It will be around the time I am landing at DFW, probably after enjoying a fantastic meal of peanuts and airplane water, and I’m bummed I’m missing it.

We’ll have a lot of Bull Pen Staff at the American Heritage Futurity this year. Besides myself, Cindy Gotoski (the magazine’s marketing manager) and Allen Glanville (bull photog extraordinaire) will also be on hand. Speaking of Bull Pen Staff, I am really excited to have Sugar Kuhn writing for us again. Check her out in the July/August issue when she takes over my “Who’s Your Daddy?” column. The girl knows more about bloodlines than I could ever dream of remembering so I am proud to turn the column over to her, where it will get bigger and better.

Check back next week for the highlights of Ardmore, the big Page sale, (maybe) Elk City and a lot of pics. In the meantime, here are a few more pics from my “girl’s trip” to Cancun with Julie Ravenscroft, Rebecca Walker, Cindy Reid (from Ft. Worth Stockyards) and Janel Miller (equine gal from Arizona).

We talked a lot of bull (literally, not the other kind) and had a heck of a lot of fun. We visited Xcaret, a zoo/aquarium/water park/archaeological site/cultural extravaganza where we watched an equine show. I don’t know enough about horses to know if I should have been impressed or not. Julie and Janel seemed to enjoy the performance. I do know there was one sad “bull” that James DeBord or Julio Moreno could have roped in their sleep, but the vaqueros made a big deal of lassoing the beast that was plodding around at about negative 5 miles an hour. All in all, a wonderfully relaxing trip that I definitely needed to take before the surge of late summer publications and deadlines (Vegas, Vegas, Vegas).

I am, and I am so excited to be headed out to Oklahoma this weekend to watch the American Heritage Futurity and then the big Page Sale the following day. The American Heritage will attract the best 2-year-olds vying for a serious purse. It has been an exciting year for the ABBI and we’ve experienced some major changes but everything seems headed in the right direction. Curt Blake is doing an amazing job on the road (and not just because he emails the results to me religiously) and Andee Lamoreaux is making big things happen at ABBI headquarters.

As excited as I am about going to Oklahoma to watch the young buckers, I am even more thrilled to see and catch up with friends (old and new).

I can’t wait to see Julie Ravenscroft and Rebecca Walker. The last time I saw them was on a white sand beach in Cancun where we’d gone for some serious r&r. I had to get back to work, so I flew out early while they enjoyed little umbrella drinks and perfected their tans. It was great to spend time with some women who really know bull (and are incredibly fun and intelligent to boot).

The last time I was in Ardmore I was actually at the Rockin P Ranch working on a story about the Pages. A tornado came through and brought some seriously nasty weather. Took out the power, blew down some trees and had me awake all night. Earthquakes I’m used to, tornadoes I’m not. Hopefully I’ll have better luck this visit!

If we haven’t met yet, introduce yourself to me in Ardmore. I’ll be the city girl who knows a surprising amount about bucking bulls-despite not owning a pair of “real” cowboy boots, being allergic to hay and having no desire to ride a horse.