PUEBLO, Colo. – The PBR’s 25th Anniversary Tour begins Friday night at Madison Square Garden in New York with the Monster Energy Buck Off at the Garden, and PBR.com will be counting down the final days of the offseason by taking a look back at the Top-5 bull riders at the conclusion of the 2017 season.
Today, we look at Kaique Pacheco, who finished the 2017 Premier Series fifth in the world standings.
No. 5 Kaique Pacheco
World Championships: 0
Best World Standings Finish: second (2015/2016)
2017 Premier Series Stats:
Rides: 40
Attempts: 91
Riding Percentage: 43.96 percent
Top Ride:
Wins: 2 (Last Cowboy Standing and St. Louis)
15/15 Bucking Battle Victories: 1 (Kansas City, Missouri)
Round Wins: 4
Top 10: 10
Top 5: 6
90-point Rides: 2
2017 RECAP: A nagging right groin/pelvis injury didn’t cause Kaique Pacheco to miss any events in 2017, but the mysterious injury that never healed during the regular season did enough damage to result in Pacheco taking a step back in 2017.
After back-to-back seasons in which Pacheco finished runner-up in the world title race, Pacheco finished fifth in 2017 in part because of his groin injury.
Regardless, Pacheco still posted the second-most qualified rides (40) on the PBR’s Premier Series and had the second-most rides at all levels of competition (64). He also attempted a PBR-high 126 bulls at all levels of competition.
Pacheco’s determination to win a world title never faltered throughout the season, but the injury contributed to a 10-for-32 collapse in the final nine events of the season after he won the Ride Score Championship at the Music City Knockout to take over the world No. 1 ranking.
The 23-year-old ended the season 640 points behind World Champion Jess Lockwood.
It may have been better for Pacheco to have taken a few events off in the second half to let his injury heal, but hindsight is 20/20.
Another surprising turn of events for Pacheco in 2017 was the fact that he only won four rounds at the Premier Series level. That was a major drop off from his 11 round wins in 2016 and seven round wins in 2015.
Pacheco won the St. Louis Invitational and Last Cowboy Standing, which helped make up his for lack of round wins a little bit, and he is the only rider to have won a PBR Major in each of the last three seasons since the PBR began the PBR Major-formatted events in 2015.
Pacheco also has won at least two Premier Series events every season of his career.
2018 OUTLOOK: Pacheco said earlier this month that he is now 100 percent healthy for the start of the 25th Anniversary Tour on Jan. 5 in New York City.
However, Pacheco made this claim throughout the 2017 season and didn’t want to blame his shortcomings on the injury.
“I am almost sure Kaique will be a factor in the world title race,” PBR Director of Livestock Cody Lambert said. “I know how good Kaique is and I feel like he was hurt. I felt like it at the time, but when you asked him he would say no he is fine. Then he doesn’t win it and he comes back a month later and says he was not fine. I don’t know where he is at.”
Two-time World Champion and CBS Sports analyst Justin McBride also expects Pacheco to be in the world title mix for a fourth consecutive season.
McBride believes some of the bad habits that Pacheco demonstrated in the second half of the season may have been a result of his injury.
“I think the injury caused some of his bad habits, but I don’t think it is that big of a deal for Pacheco,” McBride said. “If he is healthy enough to be there – the doctors tell him he is – then get the job done. He can really ride.
“He is a great, young bull rider and there is no reason whatsoever that he shouldn’t be a World Champion. But, going back to the injury thing, if a guy tells me he is good enough to ride, then I expect he is good enough to ride and I don’t worry about the injury. I don’t give him the excuse of not being the same.”
There have been plenty of comparisons between Pacheco and 2008 World Champion Guilherme Marchi, who finished runner-up in the world title race three consecutive years before finally winning a world title.
At 23 years old, Pacheco still has plenty of time to finally achieve his childhood goal, and maybe in 2018 he will follow in Marchi’s footsteps and win the World Championship in his fourth season.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko