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NAMPA, Idaho – In the blink of an eye, Smooth Operator sent Junio Quaresima crashing to the dirt inside the Ford Idaho Center on Saturday night in 1.48 seconds.
Reigning Stock Contractor of the Year Chad Berger immediately began to look to see what the No. 1 bull in the world’s bull score was.
What did Smooth Operator’s fastest buckoff since the beginning of the season in Chicago – 1.46 seconds against Rubens Barbosa – net him?
On the other hand, did it cost him?
45.5 points.
Mission accomplished, Berger thought.
Berger, of course, would rather have seen a 46-point bull score, but the reality is all Smooth Operator needed to increase his World Champion Bull average was to get a 45.5-point score or higher during the championship round of the Cooper Tires Take the Money and Ride.
“I still think he is 46 plus,” Berger said after the event. “They just won’t give it to him, but we have to fight until the end. I was real happy with his trip. I thought he bucked really rank. All we can do is keep chipping away.”
The out clinched Smooth Operator the 2019 YETI bull of the regular-season title and Berger a $25,000 bonus ahead of the 2019 PBR World Finals on Nov. 6-10 in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena.
“That is a big thing, going in No. 1, but it is Bull of the Year that means the most,” Berger said. “These couple points maybe are what it takes to win.”
The 2019 YETI World Champion Bull will be the bull with the highest average bull score from their top eight regular-season outs and two outs at the PBR World Finals.
Smooth Operator’s top eight regular-season outs give him a 45.84-point score in the world standings ahead of the Finals.
No. 2 Smooth Wreck finished second in the regular-season standings with a 45.69-point average and also did enough to actually earn a spot at the World Finals after all. Smooth Wreck was marked 45.25 points for bucking off Chase Outlaw in 7.45 seconds, and PBR Director of Livestock Cody Lambert said Sunday morning Smooth Wreck did enough to change his mind about taking him to the World Finals after originally leaving him off the list.
However, No. 3 Fearless and No. 4 Heartbreak Kid were also in Nampa and increased their World Championship averages in their final outs of the UTB regular season.
Fearless was marked 45 points, raising his average to 45.59 points, during Dalton Kasel’s event-winning, 92-point ride.
Heartbreak Kid benefitted for the second straight week from 2017 World Champion Jess Lockwood selecting him in the championship round draft.
Lockwood rode Heartbreak Kid for 94 points, and the bull picked up a 46-point bull score.
The 6-year-old now has a World Champion average of 45.56 points heading into World Finals.
Heartbreak Kid may end up posing the biggest threat to Berger’s pursuit of his first World Championship bull title since being part owners of Code Blue in 2009.
Smooth Operator would be his first World Championship that he had sole control.
“I have never been scared of competition,” Berger said. “The only way you get better is if you have good competition. If I didn’t have competition, I promise you I wouldn’t be as good at what I do as I do. You have to get better to stay in the game.”
Berger originally had planned not to buck Smooth Operator until the World Finals following the Minneapolis Invitational.
The Mandan, North Dakota, then changed his mind last week, which may end up being a $100,000 change of heart if Smooth Operator’s out on Saturday night helps him hold off his World Champion Bull contender foes in Vegas.
“I just figured you have to roll the dice,” Berger said. “I wasn’t going to bring him after Minneapolis, but then I got to doing the math. He doesn’t have to buck until Nov. 7, and he had two weeks off, so I figured we might as well try and increase his average score.
“His average goes up and it is a little harder for them to catch him. It was the right decision because the Pages decided to bring their three bulls up here and increase their averages.”
Lambert believes it will be hard for the other World Champion Bull contenders to catch Smooth Operator in Las Vegas if the 9-year-old bull stays as consistent as he has been all season long.
Smooth Operator’s yearlong consistency has been a difference maker in the title race. He has only been marked 45 points or less in four of his 15 outs in 2019. Smooth Operator is 12-3 with a career-high 45.37 average bull score in 2019.
“He has been rock solid,” Lambert said pre-event. “He has had plenty of good outs to win it and he deserves to win it. If he doesn’t win it this year, he probably never will, but I think if he doesn’t screw up at the Finals I think he wins it. I know he has a big enough lead that if he doesn’t have a bad trip he will be tough.”
Smooth Operator was marked a season-best, 46.25 points in Nashville when he bucked off Jose Vitor Leme in 3.77 seconds.
Leme had previously ridden Smooth Operator for 92.5 points in Columbus, Ohio, this past April when the bull surprisingly turned left into Leme’s riding hand.
The current world No. 1 bull rider extended his congrats to Smooth Operator for finishing the regular-season atop the bull standings.
“He speaks for himself,” Leme said. “Every time that chute opens, he shows he is No. 1 in the world. I had the chance to get on him the first time and he was kind of friendly and I got to ride him. The second time he was not as friendly and he had his normal trip and bucked me off. He is an excellent bull and deserves every bit of it.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko