J.B. Mauney began his illustrious career with three main goals: win the Professional Bull Riders rookie title, clinch the World Finals average championship and snare a world buckle.

It’s two down and one to go.

Mauney, who won the PBR’ s rookie title in 2006, accomplished Goal No. 2 by winning the 2009 World Finals’ coveted average title.

And the Mooresville, N.C., cowboy did it in dramatic fashion by becoming the first cowboy ever to stay on all eight bulls at the World Finals.

“Once I got here, I did everything that I could,” Mauney said. “I rode all of my bulls. And I had a blast doing it. It was an awesome race.”

After winning the average title, Mauney earned the World Finals’ much sought-after $250,000 average check. That pushed his 2009 World Finals earnings to $343,000.

Mauney earned $742,207 in 2009 and his PBR career earnings are $1,977,456.

Going into the World Finals Built Ford Tough Championship Round on Sunday at the Thomas & Mack Center, both Mauney and world title race leader Kody Lostroh had captivated fans by staying on their first seven bulls. In the eighth round (the short go), Lostroh was bucked off. So was Brazilian Valdiron de Oliveira, who also had stayed on his first seven.

But Mauney, who finished second in the 2009 Built Ford Tough Series world title race, stuck it on his final round bull in dramatic fashion. He won the round with a score of 93.5 aboard Black Pearl, the fast spinner owned by Ravencroft/Boyd-Floyd Bull Co.

The 93.5 helped Mauney win the average with an eight-ride score of 715. Lostroh finished runner-up with a 624 on seven rides.

Mauney said one reason he won was because he never looked too far ahead throughout the World Finals. Instead, he focused on the task at hand on a daily basis.

“I try not to think about it a whole lot,” Mauney said. “I look at each round as a different day. I try not to think about what I’ve done the day before or what’s coming the next day. I just look at the bull that I have to ride, and set my mind on staying on him.”

Staying on eight of the world’s rankest bulls also is one big physical challenge. However, Mauney said he never was slowed by injuries throughout the Las Vegas championships.

“I was lucky that I didn’t get stomped around,” he said. “The last couple of years I’ve been here, I’ve been stomped around a little bit and stepped on and sored up. But this year, I came through it like a breeze.  Granted, soreness does kick in at the end of the week, but other than that, I‘m ready to go.”

Though he was never bucked off at the World Finals, Mauney fell short in his attempt to win the Built Ford Tough Series world title. After the dust settled, he finished the year 594 points behind Lostroh, a Colorado cowboy who had 16,640 points and won the gold buckle.

However, Mauney said he’ll view his World Finals average win as a very positive milestone.

“Throughout the next year, I’m going to try to keep the mentality that I had here, and that’s taking one bull at a time,” Mauney said. “Throughout this year, I kind of got little ahead of myself. I was thinking I had bulls rode and I was going to look ahead at the next round. But that’s what kind of messed me up. So, next year, I’m going to look at the bull that I’ve got at that certain time.”

Mauney’s success has impressed Ty Murray, the seven-time world all-around champion and a PBR founding father. Murray said Mauney wins because he exudes confidence.

“J.B. has the confidence because he works at it,” Murray said. “He gets on a lot of practice bulls and he develops confidence the same way you have a lot of confidence when you study for a test. I also think that J.B. has the right amount of swagger. And swagger is different than confidence. But it’s something that’s very important in this sport because you’re talking about the most dangerous sport and a sport where the odds are stacked against you. So, confidence and swagger is very important and J.B. has it.”

Murray predicted Mauney would someday win a world title.

“J.B. does a great job of riding in pressure situations without locking up,” Murray said. “And if J.B. doesn’t win a World Championship someday, then you can break me on that.”

One change Mauney made toward the end of the year was picking bulls that he knew he had a greater chance of riding during the draft, the PBR’s system of allowing riders to select the bulls they will face in the upcoming round.

A year ago, Mauney had the reputation of continually going for the toughest bull in the pen. But in recent weeks, that hasn’t always been the case.

“Earlier this year, I was shown some stats that I had made the short round more times than Guilherme Marchi and Kody Lostroh, but they were still beating me,” Mauney said. “So I kind of got to thinking and saying to myself, ‘Well, maybe picking the rankest bull every time maybe is not the best businessman’s strategy.’

“So I kind of changed it up at the end of the year. If I was sitting in first, I would pick a bull that you could be a lot of points on, but knew was going to be good. But if I was on down the list, I would go for those rank ones if I needed to be 94 and 95 to try to win it.”

Mauney said he now attempts to use the draft to his advantage.

“I like the draft,” he said. “It makes you feel like if you are going to pick a bull that you ought to be able to ride. But when you get thrown off, it makes you look like an idiot.”

It was apparent Mauney overcame problems of inconsistency at the 2009 World Finals. It was clear that he thrived on making sound choices in the draft.

For example, after winning the first round (which was done by random draw), Mauney chose the strong spinning bull Troubadour in the draft. He had first pick and could have chosen any bull in the pen for Round 2. But he didn’t go with an unusually rank bull such as Code Blue, the PBR World Champion Bull who has yet to be ridden. Instead, he chose Troubadour, a very tough bull who has a smoother, more predictable bucking pattern.

Even though Troubadour is very difficult to ride, he’s cowboy friendly, because he’s a bull that’s much easier to get in rhythm with during the 8-second bout. Plus, he’s a bull that Mauney had conquered before.

“Troubadour is a really good bull,” Mauney said. “I’ve been on him three times now, and I’ve done really well on him every time. All in all, I think I picked really good this week.”

-by Brett Hoffman