PUEBLO, Colo. – Four months into the 2021 season, and the Rookie of the Year race is continuing to take shape.

There are six riders currently eligible for the 2021 Rookie of the Year title heading into this weekend’s PBR Wrangler Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, in Billings, Montana. That list will likely grow between now and the 2021 PBR World Finals in Las Vegas (Nov. 3-7).

2021 ROY Standings
1. Colten Fritzlan (339.50)
2. Chase Dougherty (-185 points)
3. Marcelo Procopio Pereira (-224.5)
4. Austin Richardson (-232.5)
5. Jesse Petri (-254.17)
6. J.T. Moore (-257.5)

Colten Fritzlan is the only rookie with an event win on his resume so far this season, and that is the primary driver (125 world points) of his 185-point lead on No. 2 rookie Chase Dougherty. 

RELATED: Fritzlan hungry for continued success

Fritzlan has been heating up recently. He went 2-for-3 for a fourth-place finish in Omaha, Nebraska, two weeks ago and has posted two qualified rides in three consecutive events. The Rifle, Colorado, native was unable to find any success at the WCRA Rodeo Corpus Christi, though.

The rookie race is far from over as recent years have demonstrated. Last year, Boudreaux Campbell won the Rookie of the Year title by winning the World Finals event average. Campbell did not even make his UTB season debut until August at PBR Bullnanza. Likewise, Jose Vitor Leme famously won the 2017 Rookie of the Year title by simply going 6-for-6 to win the World Finals in his premier series debut just 10 days after arriving in the United States for the first time.

Here are some other statistics about this year’s rookie class

11: Fritzlan leads all rookies with 11 qualified rides on 31 outs. He is the only rookie with double-digit rides on the Unleash The Beast.

87.09: The 21-year-old also leads ROY contenders with an average ride score of 87.09 points per ride.

42.86%: At 6-for-14, Dougherty has the highest riding percentage among riders with at least 10 outs on the UTB.

91.25: Dougherty has the highest score by a rookie in 2021 with his 91.25-point effort on Detroit Lean in Oklahoma City. Detroit Lean, though, would get Dougherty back in Omaha with a 2.08-second buckoff.

2: The 23-year-old leads all rookies with two round wins. In fact, Dougherty is the only rookie with a round win on the UTB this season.

2: Two previous Rookie of the Year award winners won the Wrangler National Finals Bull Riding event average before their PBR honors – 2014 Rookie of the Year J.W. Harris and 1999 Rookie of the Year Mike White, who also won the NFR that same season.

Fritzlan (2020) and Dougherty (2018) are previous NFR winners.

23: The average age of the 2021 rookie class so far is 23 years old. Fritzlan and Austin Richardson are the youngest at 21, while Marcelo Procopio Pereira is the oldest (26).

3: American-born riders have claimed the last three Rookie of the Year titles – Keyshawn Whitehorse, Dalton Kasel and Boudreaux Campbell. It is the longest streak by one country since Brazilian riders claimed four straight from 2010-2013. That streak began with Silvano Alves becoming the first international rider in PBR history to win the bull riding league’s top rookie award.

4: Four ROY contenders are ranked in the Top 15 of the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour standings – No. 1 Austin Richardson, No. 6 Jesse Petri, No. 10 J.T. Moore and No. 11 Marcelo Procopio Pereira. No Rookie of the Year winner has won the Velocity Tour championship in the same season.

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media