Woopaa bounces back with season-high 46.75 points
Reigning World Champion Woopaa had a career-low score Friday but is back to No. 2 in the world standings.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Reigning YETI World Champion Woopaa had an unexpected trick up his sleeve on Saturday night at the PBR Express Ranches Invitational, presented by Union Home Mortgage.
Bucking for the second time in 24 hours, Woopaa made sure to respond from a subpar 44-point out in the 15/15 Bucking Battle by sending Austin Richardson flying across the arena dirt in 4.14 seconds in the championship round.
Woopaa took two massive leaps forward out of the chutes before jerking to the right to the surprise of stock contractor Laramie Wilson and the disbelief of Richardson.
The soon-to-be 6-year-old bull was marked a season-high 46.75 points and moved up to No. 2 in the YETI World Champion Bull race (45.75 points).
Woopaa also has bucked off three consecutive riders on the Unleash The Beast for the first time in his career.
“I’m a lot happier,” Wilson said. “I think that’s the hardest he’s bucked since the Finals with Jose (Vitor Leme), for sure. I knew he was going to be good. Never thought he’d go right again, because he’s gone right twice, and that was with Daylon (Swearingen at the Finals) and Austin (tonight).
“But that shows he’s getting older, smarter. He’s feeling for the bull riders and turning back away from them. As long as he’s going to put numbers up like that, I don’t care which way he goes.”
Richardson still went on to win the event title based on his two previous rides in Oklahoma City, and all he could do was shake his head.
“I was really surprised he went right, and I kind of had my bull rope further in the middle because I thought he was going to left, so that is what I get for thinking,” Richardson. “I can’t wait for the next chance I get to pick him. I hope I get a better outcome. I know I am capable of riding him. I just need to go at him every time instead of thinking about it.”
Wilson had planned on bucking Woopaa twice in Oklahoma City long before his prized bovine tied a career-low with a 44-point score Friday night when he got caught up in the chutes before bucking 2012 PRCA champion Cody Teel off in 4.14 seconds.
Wilson was not concerned about how Woopaa would respond against Richardson.
“He just left bad,” Wilson said of the 15/15 Bucking Battle. “It’s a rookie mistake. Everybody has them. He’s not a rookie, but…”
The stakes became that much higher for Woopaa on Saturday night as Wilson and company could not afford to stack up low scores in the World Champion Bull race. The goal is to be able to limit how far Woopaa has to travel during the abbreviated 2022 UTB season.
The 2022 YETI World Champion Bull will be the animal with the highest average bull score from their top six regular-season outs and two outs at the PBR World Finals. With the reduced number of UTB events in 2022, the PBR lowered the minimum number of outs a bull needed to qualify for the World Championship this year compared to the standard eight of past seasons.
Moonlight Party sits atop the YETI World Champion Bull standings with a 3-0 record and 46.08 average bull score.
Woopaa bucked 10 times in the regular season last year before bucking twice at the 2021 PBR World Finals on his dominant march to the World Championship.
Wilson said his plans for Woopaa won’t change too much based on how things went in Oklahoma City. He had already penciled in the PBR Bad Boy Mowers Mowdown in March as an option for Woopaa if necessary when they were planning out their strategy for the season, so now that pencil may now shift to ink.
“This did and didn’t change our plans,” Wilson admitted. “Originally, I’d planned to go to Little Rock, but I told myself if I had two good outs here, I wasn’t going to Little Rock. It’s looking like I’m going to Little Rock now. So Little Rock, Global Cup and Glendale, and then Albuquerque and Sioux Falls and Tulsa. That is eight events, but if I need to, like here, I can buck him twice in some places.
“I have options, and bucking him’s not hard on him – it’s the travel. And if I’m already at an event, I don’t think bucking him twice is any harder than hauling him that much farther.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media