FORT WORTH, Texas – During Round 6 of the 2023 PBR World Finals in Fort Worth, Texas, stock contractor Katie Perschbacher clutched the arm of the man next to her in the stands as Rafael Jose de Brito prepared to ride.

“Is that your bull?” the man asked.

“Sorry,” she told him. “He’s my brother.”

Brito moved in with Perschbacher and her boyfriend and fellow stock contractor Laramie Wilson last summer before the PBR Team Series kicked off in July. He’s since moved with them to Tupelo, Oklahoma, and has become an integral part of the running of their ranch.

“You can’t even measure (how important he is),” Wilson said, “because anything we ever need done, whether it’s riding Katie’s barrel horse, we need help bucking calves, I need a trip on Top Dollar or Woopaa – he’s been on both of them in the practice pens.

“He doesn’t care what he’s given to do, whether it’s saddling a horse, go rope a bull, he’s there for any of it. He helps me buck calves. The only thing he doesn’t like doing is building a fence and waking up early.”

So it was a fraught evening for Wilson and Perschbacher watching Brito climb aboard Short Circuit in Round 6. But the nerves were for nothing, as Brito made the 8-second whistle for 88.5 points.

The score tied him for second in the round with Kyler Oliver (88.5 points on Shameless) and – more importantly – gave him the lead in the World Finals event aggregate with 268.25 points (3-for-6). He leads Ramon de Lima (3-for-6, 264 points), Wingson Henrique da Silva (3-for-6, 263.5 points), Braidy Randolph (3-for-6, 262.25 points), Jesse Petri (3-for-6, 261.75 points) and Dawson Branton (3-for-6, 252.75 points).

While he didn’t gain ground in the Unleash The Beast standings – Dener Barbosa’s round-winning performance leapfrogged him ahead of Brito into the No. 4 spot – he’s now just 244 points behind No. 1 Kaique Pacheco, who is not competing in Fort Worth due to injury.

“I’m not thinking about getting the world title,” Brito said with the help of a translator. “I’m just trying to think about bull after bull, over and over, and ride my bulls and do my best.”

Brito is also the top contender in the Rookie of the Year race, 276.5 points ahead of Silva, who’s hot on his tail in the race to be crowned World Finals champion.

Should either of the two Brazilians or Randolph win both the World Finals and Rookie of the Year honors, they would become just the fourth rider to do so, joining Luke Snyder (2001), Jose Vitor Leme (2017) and Boudreaux Campbell (2020).

No rider has ever won a world title and Rookie of the Year in the same year, let alone the World Finals event title on top of it.

If Brito continues on his current path, he could make a whole lot of history.

The winner of the World Finals receives 560 points toward the standings – more than enough to put him over the top.

“I first came here with a dream to be a World Champion, and I’m just following God’s plan,” Brito said.

At 31 years old, he’s not your typical rookie. He came to the United States after a career in Brazil, and he’s still out there showing the kids how it’s done.

“I always had a dream to come to the United States and compete, but that took me a little bit to put in my mind and make it possible,” Brito said. “I’m a little bit older, but I have a lot of fire to burn.”

Wilson and Perschbacher have always seen that potential in him. He moved in with them before he’d ever recorded a ride at the elite level in the PBR, but they’ve always known he was for real.

Brito will look to show the world that he’s the real deal when the World Finals concludes with Round 7 and the championship round on Sunday (2:30 p.m. on CBS Sports Network). He takes on Red Mosquito (7-8, UTB), who helped Andrew Alvidrez to the Round 5 win with a 91.5-point ride on Friday.

“Katie and I have been able to see it, and everybody that’s around,” Wilson said. “We knew he was capable of being a World Champion. But getting him convinced and keeping him focused and not getting down on himself – he’s the world’s worst critic. If he gets bucked off, he gets down on himself. I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s go to the practice pen and fix this. You got it. You’re good enough.’

“It’s all keeping him convinced, because there’s nobody out there better when he’s on his game. I promise. I’ve seen him make great rides in the practice pen, just jump off and go back to feeding cows, like it’s a walk in the park. So if you can keep him convinced, he’s going to be here for a long time.”

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media