PUEBLO, Colo. – Vacation is officially over for 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis.
A mentally recharged Davis will continue his pursuit of a second gold buckle on Tuesday night when he climbs into the bucking chutes at the Days of ’47 Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The No. 3-ranked rider in the PBR world standings highlights the first group of eight bull riders slated to compete at the Days of ’47 Cowboy Games and Rodeo this week.
Fans can watch all the action from Days of ‘47 for free exclusively on RidePass on Pluto TV (channel 720), beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET.
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Also tentatively slated to compete on Tuesday night at the WCRA Major rodeo is 2018 PBR World Finals event winner Marco Eguchi, 2018 Rookie of the Year Keyshawn Whitehorse, three-time Indian National Finals Rodeo winner Dakota Louis, Colton Humphries, Dakota Hostetler, Jaxon Lish and Josh Steele.
The 27-year-old has not competed anywhere this summer since the Unleash The Beast first half ended in the middle of June. Davis focused primarily on resting his body for a second-half run that will be extremely crucial for the 2021 world title contenders.
Davis did go on a family hunting trip to Kimberley, Africa, with his father Chad and son Mack from June 26 to July 6, and he most recently took a mini three-day vacation to Mexico with his wife, Kaitlyn.
“It was great,” Cooper said while driving home from the airport Monday night. “It was a lot of fun. I always like to go to Mexico and sit down at the beach. Africa was a lot of fun, too. Mack loves to hunt, and for about the last six months that is all I heard was how he excited was to go to Africa. For him to go over there and have as much fun as we did, and for my dad to be with us, that was really cool.”
Davis has been in the thick of the world title race since the season-opener in Ocala, Florida, and he spent four weeks atop the PBR world standings during the first half of 2021.
The Jasper, Texas, native may have gone 1-for-2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas at his last event, but he was still one of the hottest riders at the end of the first half. Davis won two of the last three UTB events he competed at (Omaha, Nebraska, and Jacksonville, Florida), and he may have been even closer to world No. 1 Jose Vitor Leme in the standings if not for a minor left thigh injury that kept him out of the three-day Billings, Montana, event.
While the summer break let Davis heal physically, the mental recovery is also one that he never takes for granted.
“When you focus on something all year long, you have to get your mind off it long enough to be able to rededicate yourself whenever the season starts again,” Davis said. “It is that mental break. That is important. Anybody that has to leave every weekend has to have the physical endurance, but it is also a strain on your mind too. Whenever you get a break, that is why I like to take it. Some guys want to go through the summer and go to the smaller events, which is fine, and I won’t disagree with either way. But the way it benefits me is taking most of the summer off and coming back like this deal in Salt Lake.”
Davis heads into Salt Lake City 254.5 points behind world No. 1 Leme. Coincidentally, Leme and his wife Amanda also took a recent vacation to Mexico.
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Less than 394 points separate the Top 5 riders in the world standings with the second half of the season set to begin in less than a week on July 26-27 with Last Cowboy Standing at Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Davis could earn up to 44 points in Salt Lake City if he were to win the first round on Tuesday night and then the Gold Medal Round on Saturday.
There are 32 bull riders entered in the rodeo this week, with eight riders competing per night in the four Semi-Final Rounds on July 20-23. Each Semi-Final Round winner advances to the Gold Medal Round, as do the three highest scores from all the semi-final performances combined not already advancing.
Additional notable PBR riders competing in Salt Lake City are No. 5 Joao Ricardo Vieira, No. 7 Derek Kolbaba, No. 10 Cody Teel, No. 14 Mauricio Moreira and No. 15 Chase Dougherty.
Vieira has earned a No. 1 seed and an automatic bid to the Gold Medal Round on July 24.
The winner of the Gold Medal Round will take home a minimum of $25,000 and the coveted DO47 Gold Medal.
Davis has yet to find the kind of success he would want at the Days of ’47 Arena as he is only 1-for-5 in three previous trips to Salt Lake City. That one ride – an 88.25-point effort ride on Exit Strategy in 2019 –advanced him to the Gold Medal Round, but Cool Customer bucked him off in 6.55 seconds.
Last year, Davis went 0-for-2 at the Unleash The Beast event at the outdoor rodeo arena.
“I made the Gold Medal Round before, but it has never gone my way,” Davis said. “It would be cool to win one. It would be one of those things that would be nice to add to the collection.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media