Team Australia will not only have home-dirt advantage at the Sydney Global Cup. It'll also have home-bull advantage. That leaves Teams USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil digging for information on some of the best bulls Down Under.
By PBR
SYDNEY, Australia – The Sydney PBR Global Cup begins on Saturday night at Qudos Bank Arena with the invading countries of Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States ready to take Australia’s soil in the battle for global bull riding dominance.
Team Australia will have two significant advantages when it comes to the two nights of bull riding, the main one being the fact that Australia will have 10 more attempts to record a score than the opposing countries.
The visiting countries will deploy seven riders each night, with two additional riders competing in two bonus rounds. Meanwhile, the host country (Australia) will compete with 14 riders on Saturday night and then 10 on Sunday. Team Australia will also send two riders each night into the bonus round.
The winning team of the Global Cup is the team with the highest combined aggregate score based upon its Top 12 rides.
The other possible advantage for the Aussies is the fact that the majority of the riders from across the world have never seen, attempted or even heard of the bulls slated to compete at the Global Cup.
In fact, there was a mad scramble on Friday night at the PARKROYAL Parramatta Hotel once each team was designated their respective bull pen following a random draft.
Team USA and Team Canada remained in the hotel lobby and began to scavenge across every social media channel – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube – as well as the RidePass broadcast from last weekend’s Cairns Invitational – to get any possible video footage of the bulls they will be facing.
Each team’s coach selects which rider will attempt what bull in their bull pen.
Team USA coach Justin McBride was quickly making notes of which way each bull appeared to spin. Notes such as “damn good to the right,” “left good a little forward,” “left and sweet” and “left and up and down” were all over his lineup card.
The same could be said for Team Mexico, which met later in the evening at the hotel’s restaurant. Veteran Francisco Morales had similar remarks for the Mexicans bulls they had drawn.
Team Brazil was able to find video on all but one of their bulls as of Friday night.
It should also be noted that the bull delivery identification is different in Australia from North America. In North America, chutes are designated by looking from the dirt toward the chutes, while in Australia the right and left deliveries are identified by looking from the chutes toward the arena.
Therefore, a right-handed rider would likely prefer a bull that is a left-handed delivery in Australia and vice versa.
Fans can watch the Global Cup exclusively on RidePass beginning at 5:30 am. ET on Saturday.
The current No. 1 bull in Australia is 5-4 this season with a 44.72-point average bull score. Some in Australia call Hillbilly Deluxe their version of reigning two-time World Champion SweetPro’s Bruiser.
Hillbilly Deluxe comes from a prestigious bloodline, as he is a son of three-time World Champion Little Yellow Jacket.
2016 PBR Australia champion Cody Heffernan rode the 2016 PBR Australia Bull of the Year for 89.25 points the same season they won their titles.
“He is like our Bruiser,” Heffernan said. “I was the first to ride him and it took a little while before somebody else rode him. Now it is like if you are one of the top riders, you should be able to ride him.”
The 2016 PBR Australia Bull of the Year has been ridden in his last two outs by Aaron Kleier (89.5 points) & Fraser Babbington (89 points).
“He turns back whichever way they run him,” Kleier said. “He normally jumps out aways and turns back into the gate and toward the latch.”
Hillbilly Deluxe also surrendered a 90.25-point ride to Lucas Divino.
Some may argue that a rider can score higher on Fully Locked and Loaded, but the sample size for this bull is a little smaller with only two rides in 21 career outs.
Nathan Burtenshaw won the 2017 PBR Australia Finals here in Sydney by riding Fully Locked and Loaded for 88.75 points.
“He is just a good little bull, pretty honest,” Burtenshaw said.
Burtenshaw then went into some gamesmanship knowing the opposing teams will be looking for intel on the bull.
“I am not going to say what he does because you are probably going to write about it,” Burtenshaw said before laughing. “He is a cool little bull that will kick and spin.”
Fully Locked and Loaded has bucked off seven consecutive riders since Burtenshaw rode him.
PBR Australia No. 1 rider Aaron Kleier wants a shot at him.
“I have never been on him, but Fully Locked and Loaded may be the hardest one going,” said Kleier –the No. 1 bull rider in Australia.
SweetPro’s Call Me Joe (10-4, PBR AUS) (Bonus Round Bull)
SweetPro’s Call Me Joe has been ridden in his last two outs by Justin Paton (89 points) and Cody Heffernan (89 points).
“He is a good bull,” Paton said. “Generally out and around to the right. That is what he has done every time I have seen him. I got on him once before and he made pretty short work of me so when I got the chance to get on him again I made sure I was getting even.”
Team USA’s Matt Triplett was the first to ride Call Me Joe, doing so for 86.5 points in 2016, while Fraser Babbington posted 90 points on him last October.
Un Broken (14-0, PBR AUS) (Bonus Round Bull)
Un Broken may be the hardest and rankest bull going in Australia.
The Brandenburg Bucking Bull has never been ridden in his career and he arrives in Sydney with a perfect 14-0 record.
Un Broken can be used out of either delivery, but he looks to be strong and to the right.
Heffernan nearly rode Un Broken last July before bucking off at 7.65 seconds.
“He is in the club of one of the rankest in Australia,” Heffernan said. “I have a list of bulls that I have ridden ranked and he is on it. They are the ones I want to ride. I almost got the job done. I was 7.X. He just flat off bucked me off. He got me there at the end. It would be good to get my name on him first.”
Palooka brings a streak of 12 consecutive buckoffs into Global Cup.
Burtenshaw was the last rider to conquer Palooka after he rode the bovine athlete for 86 points almost one year ago.
He bucked off Palooka last weekend in 5.81 seconds during the Cairns Invitational.
“He is just good and kicks and spins,” Burtenshaw said. “He is kind of a bit different there on the weekend then when I rode him. He is a good, honest bull and one you want to get on.”
Paradise Outdoors Advertising Ray Ban (6-3, PBR AUS) (Bonus Round)
PBR Australia didn’t crown a 2017 Bull of the Year, but Ray Ban was the top-marked bull at the 2017 PBR Australia National Finals last year in Sydney.
Ray Ban bucked off Troy Wilkinson in 4.94 seconds for a 45.5-point bull score with a lot of kick and power to the left.
The Bantengs
There has also been much chatter about the banteng bulls in Australia.
Plenty of the Australian riders are excited to see how the foreign riders handle the wild and sometimes a little unpredictable bulls from Southeast Asia.
The banteng breed arrived in Australia in 1849 when 20 bantengs were shipped to the Cobourg Peninsula as a source of meat for British troops.
There are three Banteng bulls out in Sydney on Saturday night – Annihilation, Tuff Territory and TakeTheGamble. Bad Chill is a re-ride.
Take The Gamble (18-0, PBR AUS) (Bonus Bull)
Take The Gamble is 18-0 and just recently bucked off Lachlan Slade in 2.85 seconds at the Cairns Invitational.
The Brandenburg Bucking Bull has bucked off 10 of his 18 opponents in less than 2 seconds.
Take The Gamble is 6-0 this year with a 43-point average bull score.
Tanner Byrne vs. Annihilation (2-1, PBR AUS)
This should be a good matchup for Byrne, who is similar in stature and riding style to that of Nathan Burtenshaw.
Burtenshaw just rode Annihilation for 86.5 points last weekend in Cairns.
Sydney is the bull’s fourth career out.
Alfonso Orozco vs. Tuff Territory (19-0, PBR AUS)
Team Mexico will send Alfonso Orozco against Tuff Territory.
Tuff Territory is 19-0 and has yet to be ridden. Only five riders have lasted more than 4 seconds on the Brandenburg Bucking Bull.
