PUEBLO, Colo. – With the 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast quickly approaching May 9-19, PBR and its many arms have amped up the drama surrounding this year’s race leading into the season-ending showdown in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas.

Naturally so, as the best bull riders in the world are set to endure a three-stage, progressive-elimination competition format primed to provide an experience unlike any other World Finals event in PBR history.

And with riders vying to stay out of the Danger Zone en route to securing a spot in the Top 15 once the year-end showcase comes around, fans will truly witness some of the spiciest and most meaningful regular season outs over the course of these final five events, no doubt.

But with a guy like Thiago Salgado recently rejoining the world’s top tour and seemingly lighting the leaderboards on fire on his way to potentially being one of the mentioned 15 riders to punch their ticket to the PBR World Finals: Championship (May 18-19 inside AT&T Stadium) … well, the dramatic storylines keep writing themselves.

Becoming just the third rider all season to produce a flawless 4-for-4 performance, Salgado put on quite the show for fans inside Ford Idaho Center en route to securing his spot at next month’s gold buckle-crowning finale!

Joining Eduardo Aparecido (who bested all four of his bovines the prior weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico) and rookie Leonardo Castro (who was able to stay perfect during the second PBR Major of the season in Sacramento, California) in the exclusive 4-for-4 club, there’s no doubt that the collective pack has turned things up a notch, now with a rider staying flawless in each of premier series past two events.

But with the talented Brazilian turning in four consecutive Top 12 finishes (10th, 12th, 2nd, 1st), now 8-for-14 since returning to Unleash The Beast in early March, arguably no rider has been as locked in as Salgado has been over the past month.

RELATED: Thiago Salgado earns career-first premier series win in Nampa, improves to No. 14 in the world

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g his most productive weekend of work to date with a rare Thursday night conversion, he exited Round 1 with a sound 86-point conversion aboard Rockville to get things started.

Yet, when the rider returned to the arena on Friday afternoon, things got interesting.

Earning a less-than-ideal score during his 8-second dance with Time Bomb (68.5 points), the 21-year-old advanced to 2-for-2 on the weekend and positioned himself in favorable position within the event leaderboard by accepting the out for what it was.

Just a weekend after seeing a pair of fellow riders accept imperfect scores at the 47-point and 50.5-point marks in Albuquerque (in hopes of accepting the points in an effort to stay perfect, rather than risk the possibility of earning zero points during the re-ride) despite seeing both Wingson Henrique da Silva and Paulo Eduardo Rossetto fail to use the scores for an event-long run, Salgado opted into keeping his 68.5-point effort from Round 2.

Which, between the fact that he ended up attempting six total bulls throughout the weekend (which included two accepted re-rides in Round 3 to pair with his 4-for-4 slate) and the idea that he bested runner-up finisher Alan de Souza by a mere 66.5 points in the aggregate … it would appear he made the right decision all things considered.

And as the industry continues to ramp up PBR Camping World Team Series promotion where a qualified ride itself can mean even more, Salgado seems to have strategic approaches ready for both the summer series and the rest of his come-from-behind UTB run, now ranked No. 14 overall despite producing qualified rides in just five total premier series events so far in 2024.

While accepting the score ended up being the ultimate difference for Salgado, he, and fans around the world began to doubt the approach after seeing the talent battle his way to a third-round score.

Going head-to-head with the rankest bulls on the planet isn’t a very easy task, after all.

Fighting his way through a pair of Round 3 outs that weren’t up to par on the animal athlete’s end, he finally connected with his third bull of the night.

Which not only fuels the fire for riders open to opting into the long-term approach of an event, or even a season (see Wingson Henrique da Silva, Alan de Souza and others), but earned the Brazilian a spot in the short round.

Perhaps the coolest part of the entire scenario?

No. 1 Cassio Dias, who, despite going 0-for-3 on the weekend en route to getting a bit roughed up during his third-round showdown, was cheering on his fellow countryman like none other.

Standing atop the chutes, the world’s top-ranked bull rider could’ve been confused for a member of Salgado’s family with how adamantly he cheered his friend to the buzzer. Sporting his patented suspender look, Dias was all smiles as the celebrations began.

RELATED: #InCaseYouMissedIt: Salgado earns first premier series win in Nampa

Which, for the man himself in Salgado, featured a clean landing parlayed by nearly an entire lap around the arena. Waving to fans, extending his arms and almost flying around Ford Idaho Center, he acknowledged the crowd during his sprint before throwing his helmet into the air and crashing to the dirt on two knees.

Raising his hands to the sky in praise, Salgado had officially clinched the first Unleash The Best event win of his budding career.

Dancing with Brusta every step of the way, Salgado exited his final opportunity of the weekend with a quality 88.75-point ride, now his highest score of 2024, en route to taking home a big ole’ check for $46,161 and an even more crucial 147 UTB points as he continues his elegant ascension of the Unleash The Beast World Championship standings.

Just 9-for-23 on the season, bouncing back in a great way since beginning his UTB slate via a mundane start, Salgado has nonetheless willed his way into the tour’s Top 15. Not an easy task at any point of the season, but even more challenging as riders continue to bare down with their World Finals qualification status, and overall series ranking, constantly fluctuating.

Now the eighth different rider this season to secure his career-first UTB win, Salgado sure seems to be trending in the right direction with just five showcases remaining.

Can Salgado keep his fiery streak alive and keep producing Top 10 finishes and bring some additional momentum into his third appearance at the dramatic season-ending showdown?

RELATED: Secure your tickets to the 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast Today!

With Unleash The Beast preparing to put on a show inside Denny Sanford Premier Center April 5-7 during the 19th regular season event of the 2024 premier series slate in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, we’re taking a quick look back at some of the numerical takeaways from last weekend’s PBR Nampa, presented by Cooper Tires during this week’s By the Numbers!

Second-Place Souza: Putting together one of the quietest, yet most consistent, campaigns of the season, Alan de Souza continued his trend of Top 10 showings in Nampa, Idaho, by producing his second runner-up effort of the 2024 slate. Turning in another stellar finish as the 30-year-old continues to breathe life into his all-pro season, the veteran has been doing his best Eduardo Aparecido impression: regularly making the whistle while maintaining a low-key approach in climbing the standings. But with his 3-for-4 showcase last weekend, the skilled Brazilian has now ripped off the second-most qualified rides of the season (23), trailing only No. 1 Cassio Dias.

Teaming up with Sweet Train (87.25 points), he got his weekend off to a hot start before stumbling a bit in Round 2 during his matchup against Sweatlodge Testified. Touching his opponent just 3.15 seconds into the out, the veteran was forced to recollect himself ahead of championship Saturday. Doing just that, Souza stayed perfect for the duration, eventually covering Pam’s Dream for 84.75 points in the third round, thus punching his short round ticket, where he’d produce the third-highest score of his epic season. Later exiting the short go with a welcomed 88 points for his work aboard Dark Thoughts, he may have come up one ride short of Thiago Salgado for the event honors, but nonetheless garnered 113.5 UTB points for yet another podium effort. Having regularly made his way into the Top 10, he’s missing just three placement spots (first, fifth and ninth-place results) in achieving finishes in each of the Top 10 slots this season. Ranked No. 7 overall, he’ll look to chase down his first victory of the season when the tour makes its next stop in Sioux Falls, April 5-7.

Another Top 5 for No. 11: Just 2.75 points in the aggregate score behind Souza, yet still good enough to earn the 2018 World Champion his second-consecutive Top 5 finish, Kaique Pacheco seems to have flipped the switch into “let’s ride” mode as the 29-year-old has officially resurfaced to his typical world title-contending form. Now 6-for-8 throughout his last two appearances, this is the Pacheco fans want to see heating up ahead of the 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast!

Getting his noted celebration some additional camera time as of late, Pacheco finished off his second-straight 3-for-4 performance with an epic 89-point dance with none other than Ricky Vaughn. Matching the bovine jump for jump en route to assuring his spot in the Top 5, that specific ride helped average out his pair of early-event scores, both of which came in at under 85 points. Scored 84.25 points for his opening round conversion aboard Sugar Smack, he stumbled a bit during his second-round out but triumphed in Round 3 during his 84-point effort paired with Blackstone. While Pacheco can’t exactly be upset with the pair of late-season scores, the 84s undoubtedly affected his overall placing. But with this season’s new postseason rules and competition format, qualified rides themselves are going to be much more valuable than past seasons, as riders like Pacheco will need to keep riding bulls in order to progress to the biggest stage in bull riding. Netting a spicy 100 UTB points for his third-place finish, Pacheco is now safely inside the Top 15 at No. 11 overall. (For now, at least!)

40 & Climbing: As riders continue to get their affairs in order ahead of the 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast, everyone is on the same in knowing what must be accomplished in order to qualify. For Andrew Alvidrez, who just wrapped up his second premier series event of the spring since being relegated to the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour (PWVT), he understands he’s got plenty of ground to cover if he’s to not only stay on the top tour itself, but still needs quite the jump up the standings (or an event win) to punch his ticket to Cowtown Coliseum. Coming damn close to winning it all last weekend in Nampa, he was able to turn in a fourth-place finish en route to netting an ever-important 75 UTB points and leaping to the No. 40 rank.

The fourth and final cowboy to produce a 3-for-4 weekend, Alvidrez finished just half of a point (.5) behind Pacheco, barely missing out on what would’ve been his first podium finish of the premier series season. Unable to get things going early on Thursday evening, he completed the remainder of his outs with 8-second efforts, including 86.75 points aboard Buck Cherry, 84.5 points atop Koulee’s Pet before finally dancing with Manaba to the whistle, his first short round conversion of the 2024 campaign. Needing a few more qualified rides this upcoming weekend in Sioux Falls, Alvidrez has somehow only managed to record a qualified ride in two of the eight UTB events he’s participated in. Alvidrez will look to jump into the Top 32 up north this weekend if he hopes to keep his World Finals aspirations alive and well!

Tie for Five: On a weekend where No. 1 Cassio Dias went 0-for-3, both No. 2 John Crimber and No. 3 Dalton Kasel turned in matching 2-for-4, 176.75-point outings to eventually end the event tied for fifth place overall. Representing Crimber’s second-straight fifth-place effort, the trending 18-year-old got thing started in Round 1 with a healthy 87.75-point ride aboard Wishful Thinking before going on to win the second round, courtesy of his 89-point dance with Cookies & Cream. Taking home 65.6 UTB points as the rookie continues to put on a show, he’s now just 415.5 points behind Dias (decreasing his lead from 481 UTB points at the event’s start!)

Kasel, who turned in his fifth Top 5 performance in his last six events, was also firing early and often inside Ford Idaho Center, as the 25-year-old opened the weekend off with a round-winning (tying Keyshawn Whitehorse) 88-point journey aboard Bo Man. Wasting no time following up the effort on Friday night, Kasel doubled down aboard Fierce’s Dirtnap for an even higher 88.75-point score. Bucking off both of Wishful Thinking and Mike’s Motive, Kasel was forced to settle for the fifth-place tie, still able to earn 61.5 points while also closing the gap on Dias. Just 8.83 UTB points behind Crimber, he’s been the walking definition of world title contender lately!

Magic No. 15: The Danger Zone is lurking, and so are some of the world’s best bull riders as they continue to bounce up, down and all around the Top 15 (which represents the spot all 50-some riders are looking to jump into ahead of the 2024 PBR World Finals). While No. 1 Dias, No. 2 Crimber and No. 3 Kasel have enjoyed their triforce of leaderboard-topping efforts for a majority of the season now, they’d be wise to keep an eye on No. 4 Eduardo Aparecido and No. 5 Koltin Hevalow, who have been two of the most consistent riders on tour this year. With Aparecido winning the third PBR Major of the season in Albuquerque and Hevalow picking up the first UTB win of his career a few weeks prior in Salt Lake City, Utah, both of the cowboys’ qualified ride totals continue to climb, with Aparecido’s 22 conversions ranked tied for the third-most on tour, while Hevalow’s 21 remain tied with Crimber for the fifth-most amongst all premier series competitors.

Mix in several established, world champion-caliber athletes like No. 7 Alan de Souza, No. 8 Joao Ricardo Vieira (who was forced to end his weekend early in Nampa due to injury), No. 13 Cody Jesus and No. 15 Keyshawn Whitehorse, and tour youngsters like No. 9 Caden Bunch, No. 10 Julio Cesar Marques, No. 12 Brady Fielder and No. 14 Thiago Salgado will very much need to keep things riding in a positive direction should they want to keep said Top 15 honors.

That, of course, is an ode to No. 16 Kaiden Loud, No. 17 Leonardo Castro, No. 18 Wingson Henrique da Silva, No. 19 Daylon Swearingen, No. 25 Boudreaux Campbell and even No. 26 Jose Vitor Leme, each of which are more than capable of making a run here over these last five events en route to claiming a Top 15 spot of their own. With Austin Richardson continuing to occupy the No. 6 rank despite not riding for the past three months, technically the magic number could be 16 at the end of the regular season. Regardless, the pack is primed to execute quite the dramatic finish to what’s already been one of the most entertaining premier series seasons to date!

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media