Scoring 89 points on Shortcut (Circle T Ranch & Rodeo), 2010 Professional Bull Riders Rookie of the Year Silvano Alves of Pilar do Sul, Brazil, is the leader after Round 1 on Friday in the Built Ford Tough Series event at the Scottrade Center.
There were 21 qualified rides in Round 1, and there are nine points separating first place from 21st place. Alves, who began the weekend ranked fifth in the BFTS standings, is looking for his second win of the year, having finished first in Anaheim, Calif., in Week 3.
Round 2 of the St. Louis Invitational will be on Saturday at 6:50 p.m., while Round 3 and the Built Ford Tough Championship Round will start at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The PBR is offering a special Family 4-Pack, which includes four tickets, four hot dogs and four drinks for only $99. Good seats are still available, beginning at $15, at the Scottrade Center box office, online at www.Ticketmaster.com, and by telephone at (800) 745-3000.
Chance Roberts of Jewett, Ill., was the first round leader, until Alves, who was one of the last five riders to compete, overtook him. Roberts, who was the 10th rider of the night, scored 88 points on Slider (Plummer/Larson/McKee).
Two-time PBR World Champion Chris Shivers is in third place with 87.75 points, and 2009 PBR World Champion Kody Lostroh is in fourth place with 86.75 points. Rounding out the Top 5 with 86.75 points is Colby Yates, who won the Dickies® Iron Cowboy title and $50,000 a week ago at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The Top 3 riders in the world – Valdiron de Oliveira, Austin Meier, and Guilherme Marchi – were among the 21 riders to post qualified rides in Round 1.
Each of the Top 40 bull riders in the world will ride on Saturday and Sunday. Following Round 2 on Saturday, the riders with the 10 highest scores will each compete with one more bull. Following Round 4 on Sunday, the riders with the 10 highest cumulative scores will advance to the Built Ford Tough Championship Round where they will compete with one more bull. The overall event winner will be the rider with the highest combined score from all five rounds.
The first seven events of the 2011 season have produced seven different winners. Oliveira won the season opener at Madison Square Garden in New York, while Marchi won in Portland.
PBR riders will be signing autographs from 12-1 p.m. on Saturday at Bass Pro Shop, 1365 South 5th Street in St. Charles, Mo. There will be family-friendly activities from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., including stick-bull racing, bull roping, and mechanical bulls. PBR in-arena announcer and experienced angler Clint Adkins will host a fishing seminar from 12:30-1 p.m. Brandon Bates, who is host of “The Elk Chronicles” on the Outdoor Channel, as well as an announcer for the PBR, will host a hunting seminar from 1-1:30 p.m.
The action from St. Louis will be televised in HD on VERSUS at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, and Sunday. Play-by-play broadcaster Craig Hummer will be joined by PBR Ring of Honor member J.W. Hart, who will provide color commentary, and Leah Garcia, who will be doing dirt-level interviews. Built Ford Tough Series telecasts are produced for the PBR by David Neal Productions, a Los Angeles-based production company led by 30-time Emmy® Award winner and Peabody Award winner David Neal, who serves as executive producer and creative lead.
St. Louis is the eighth stop on the nationally-televised BFTS, which makes 28 stops in 23 states. The season began at world-famous Madison Square Garden in New York, and culminates Oct. 26-30 in Las Vegas at the richest bull riding event in the world, the PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals. The Finals is where the 2011 PBR World Champion will be crowned and awarded the $1 million Built Ford Tough bonus.
Professional Bulls Riders
St. Louis Invitational
Friday’s results from Scottrade Center
Event Leaders (Round 1-Event Total Points)
About the Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR)
The PBR is the world’s premier bull riding organization. More than 100 million viewers annually watch over 400 hours of primetime PBR programming on VERSUS, NBC, CBS and networks around the world. The PBR has awarded over $100 million in prize money, and 20 riders have earned over $1 million, including Justin McBride with $5.5 million – the most of any western-sports athlete in history. The PBR was nominated as 2010 Sports League of the Year at the Sports Business Journal Sports Business Awards, alongside the National Football League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. Nearly 2 million fans attend Built Ford Tough Series and Touring Pro Division events each year. For more information on the PBR, go to www.pbr.com, or follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TeamPBR and http://twitter.com/TEAMPBR.