The Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) elite Built Ford Tough Series will highlight the Wild, Wild West Festival presented by First Stop on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Colorado State Fair Events Center.
Tickets are available for as little as $10 and can be purchased online at www.Ticketmaster.com or by telephone at (800) 745-3000. Event times are 8 p.m. on Friday, 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Fans will be able to experience adrenaline-fueled action when the Top 40 bull riders in the world take on the toughest animal athletes, pumped by rock and roll and bathed in pyrotechnics. The PBR is having the deepest title race in history with less than 900 points separating the top four riders and eight riders within 1,800 points of each other in the BFTS standings. A potential 1,100 points are available at the Pueblo Invitational.
Six different riders have been atop the standings already in 2010, including current leader Austin Meier (Kinta, Okla.), who regained the top spot with his fourth win of the season last weekend in Wichita, Kan. There have been 15 different winners through the first 19 events, with the only multiple winners being Meier and Valdiron de Oliveira (Aparecida de Goiania, GO, Brazil), whose two wins include $260,000 at the 2010 Dickies Iron Cowboy Invitational presented by Winstar World Casinos.
Joining Meier in Pueblo will be Colorado’s own Josh Koschel (Greeley, Colo.) and Renato Nunes (Buritama, SP, Brazil), who is only 212.5 points behind Meier after leading heading into Wichita. The field will also include 2008 PBR World Champion Guilherme Marchi (Leme, SP, Brazil), who moved up from seventh to fourth after a runner-up finish last weekend, as well as sixth-ranked Ryan McConnel (Colgate, Okla.) and 2004 PBR World Champion Mike Lee (Decatur, Texas), who is ranked eighth and was the winner in Des Moines, Iowa, two weeks ago.
The Pueblo Invitational will feature three rounds of the best bull riders matched against the top bulls in the PBR. The scores from the three rides will be combined, and the Top 15 riders will advance to the Built Ford Tough Championship Round following intermission on Sunday afternoon, where they will compete with one more bull. The rider with the highest total score after the championship round will be declared the winner.
Round 2 of the Pueblo Invitational will be the third ABBI Classic event of the BFTS season. The ABBI, which introduces young bucking bulls at select BFTS and Touring Pro events, is dedicated to unifying, developing and promoting the buck bull industry through pedigree preservation; enhancement and promotion of bucking bull ownership, breeding, and welfare; and development of programs and events showcasing the world's finest bucking bull stock. The ABBI is the third-largest cattle registry and is set up to record and preserve the pedigrees of the world's premier bucking bull livestock.
The PBR will induct acclaimed bull rider Jim Sharp and former PBR CEO Randy Bernard into the Ring of Honor during a ceremony at the Pueblo Convention Center from 12:00–2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Prior to 2010, the Ring included only former bull riders in its ranks. This year, by special dispensation from the PBR Board of Directors, and in recognition of his unique role in building the organization from a $20,000 enterprise into a multimillion-dollar global phenomenon, Bernard will become the first and only non-rider inducted.
The Ring of Honor, PBR’s equivalent of a Hall of Fame, was created in 1996 to recognize those who have had the most profound impact on bull riding, both in and out of the arena. Its 30 members include such luminaries as the great Jim Shoulders, PBR founding fathers Ty Murray and Cody Lambert and three-time PBR World Champion Adriano Moraes.
The ceremony will also include the presentation of the 2010 Sharon Shoulders Award to Tiffany Davis, the wife of Jerome Davis. Created by the PBR Board of Directors to honor women who have made a difference in the sport of bull riding, the award is named in honor of Sharon Shoulders, who was the first recipient in 2009. Sharon Shoulders was recognized for her support and encouragement of her late husband, Jim Shoulders, the celebrated cowboy and bull rider who was inducted as a member of the first class in the PBR Ring of Honor in 1996.
Individual tickets to the ceremony are $25 for general admission seating and $75 for a reserved seat and lunch. Tables can be purchased for $750, which includes 10 seats with lunch and recognition in the event program, or $2,500 for a patron package, which includes 10 seats, lunch with a PBR rider, and recognition during the ceremony. For Ring of Honor ticket packages please contact Brenda Pachino at (719) 242-2850 or at brenda@pbrnow.com.
The proceeds from the Ring of Honor will be given to Garth Brooks’ Teammates for Kids Foundation as part of the PBR’s commitment to raise $1 million for the charitable organization. Teammates for Kids was co-founded by Garth Brooks 11 years ago with 67 major league baseball players. As of 2010, 2,400 professional athletes from Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, Major League Soccer, and now the PBR, make donations every year to the foundation. The number one rule at Teammates for Kids is 100 percent of the money goes to the kids. All of the money raised is distributed to select nonprofit organizations that serve and benefit children in the United States and around the world.
First Stop stores will be hosting the PBR merchandise truck from 12–2 p.m. on Tuesday at 1601 Main Street in Alamosa and on Wednesday from 2–4 p.m. at 1723 Pueblo Blvd. in Pueblo and from 5–7 p.m. at 5510 S. Highway 85 in Colorado Springs.
The PBR merchandise truck and PBR riders will be at Copperhead Road, 3330 North Academy Boulevard in Colorado Springs from 8–10 p.m. on Wednesday.
Fans will be able to meet and get autographs from 2009 PBR World Champion Kody Lostroh and Flint Rasmussen, the exclusive entertainer of the PBR, and get their pictures with the PBR World Finals Cup on Thursday from 3–5 p.m. at Sam’s Club, 412 Eagleridge Blvd. in Pueblo. The PBR merchandise truck will be at Sam’s Club from 10 a.m.–6 p.m. with the PBR mechanical bulls set up from 12–6 p.m.
The PBR merchandise truck, the PBR World Finals Cup and a PBR rider will be at Cowboys, 25 North Tejon Street in Colorado Springs from 8–10 p.m. on Thursday, and fans will be able to meet riders on Friday from 12–2 p.m. at the Big R store at 1020 Bonforte Blvd. in Pueblo.
The second-round bull draft will be held on Saturday from 10–11 a.m. at the Cooper Tires Stage located at Union and Richmond as part of the Wild, Wild West Festival in downtown Pueblo.
The Wild, Wild West Festival is a western-themed event hosted by PBR, the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce and the community of Pueblo.
The annual event, which concludes each night with the elite Built Ford Tough Series Pueblo Invitational at the Colorado State Fair Events Center, has been expanded for 2010 to include authentic cowboy, Native American and mountain men villages, hot-air balloons and famed Native American recording artists Brule. There are several activities for families, including Mutton Bustin’, carnival rides, street vendors, a jazz festival, a chili cook-off, shopping and much more.
Fans can receive complimentary admission to WWWF courtesy of Big R stores, including the location at 1020 Bonforte Blvd. in Pueblo.
RFD-TV is presenting Brule, who have received multiple awards at the Native American Music Awards including Group of the Year. Brule will perform each day of the WWWF on the Cooper Tire Stage located at Union and Richmond.
The Medal of Honor Foundation is hosting the first annual Home of Heroes – Wild, Wild West Festival Golf Fest on Friday, May 14 at the Pueblo Country Club. There will be 36 teams competing with each having a returning Iraq or Afghanistan war veteran. The event will also feature two Congressional Medal of Honor winners, including Drew Dix of Pueblo. For information on the golf tournament, contact Paulette Stuart at jhmpstuart@comcast.net or by telephone at (800) 279-6397, ext. 516 or (719) 404-2776.
The PBR is the premiere bull riding organization in the world with the best riders from the United States, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, and Canada. One of the fastest-growing sports in the country, PBR events air weekly on VERSUS, NBC, CBS, and FOX. For more information on the Professional Bull Riders, please visit www.pbr.com or contact Jack Carnefix at (719) 242 2800 or jcarnefix@pbrnow.com or Sara Broun at (719) 242 2800 or sbroun@pbrnow.com.
Join PBR on Facebook www.facebook.com/TeamPBR and Twitter http://twitter.com/teamPBR.
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About the Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR)For more on the PBR, please visit www.pbr.com, www.teampbr.com, www.pbr.tv, www.myspace.com/teampbr, http://twitter.com/teampbr, www.facebook.com/TeamPBR, or www.pbr.com/worldfinals.