ARLINGTON, Texas – For every premier series season’s World Champion bull rider, there’s a YETI World Champion bull.
And while we’ve watched on as Cassio Dias produced one of the flashiest rookie campaigns in PBR history, we wonder:
Is it quite as memorable without his pair of tour-topping scores stemming from his dominant duo of dances upon the bovine known as Man Hater?
The typical UTB contestant fears seeing their name next to the almost guaranteed buckoff master, however, Dias has made lemonade twice now.
And after seeing the 22-year-old Brazilian win it all Sunday afternoon, the pairing’s historic outs mean even more, as the bovine was crowned the 2024 YETI World Champion Bull.
“Those two rides … I’m 65 and I’ve seen bull rides my whole life. I’m not saying they’re the best (pair) ever, but they’re the best I’ve ever seen live … and maybe even on TV. They were great. Everybody has their opinion. Some will say it was, some will say it wasn’t. This is the best one that’s ever come off my trailer,” stock contractor Gene Owen said with a laugh.
“They will be part of history.”
Apart from the Kansas City Outlaws product, who’s been quite the exception in many ways and statistical categories in 2024, the world’s top-ranked bull has been just that this season.
The top dog and rather RANK.
While the prized bovine is owned via a shared partnership between stock contractors Jane Clark and Owen, it’s been the latter who’s been more front and center this season as his on-air representative.
But it was Clark who originally wanted to take things to the next level in becoming world title contending partners.
“We’ve gone through a lot of bulls and she doesn’t buy cheap bulls. We’d had a few bulls go to the Finals, it was a few years ago. I called her about some bulls one day and she said ‘I don’t want any more ‘just’ bulls. I want a superstar bull. I don’t care if takes a year to find him, that’s what I want,’" Owen shared.
“And that’s what we did, we just took our time. She’s bought a lot of really good bulls since but you can’t buy the bucking bull of the year.”
Initially hauling the standout bovine on behalf of some friends to test the waters, Owen and Clark weren’t too sure about what they were getting themselves into initially.
But it seems rather safe to say Man Hater ended up being quite the favorable acquisition.
For the duo of partners and fans around the world, alike!
“The Halpains, Jerry and Aaron Halpain raised him. When they sent him to me, we hauled him for five or six months before we bought him because I just wasn’t sure for what they were asking if he would hold together,” he explained.
“There are a lot of bulls that just can’t stand the PBR, they’re just not good enough. They’re going to ride them in the PBR and they have to take it and come back. So, we’ve actually only owned him for little over a year.”
Eventually purchasing him back in 2023, it didn’t take much time for the young bull to ascend the ranks of greatness.
“By having him now, it’s mission accomplished, but he didn’t come automatically. We didn’t just open the gate when we bought him and he just wasn’t kicking and spinning. It was a process to get him settled in and get him in the right place. So, I’m proud of that,” Owen said.
“There were times I wasn’t that sure about him but after he figured it out, it was just up to me to manage him the right way. I bucked my first bull in 1985 and I’ve had a few thousand, I’m sure of, and probably more than that, and that’s the best bull I’ve ever had. So, proud seems like a small word for what he’s done for us. Until you win something like that … Stock Contractor of the Year or Bull of the Year … it doesn’t matter how long you’ve done this. I’ve done this probably longer than most anybody in the PBR, but until you win something like that, you’re just doing your day job.”
Job well done, sir. Job. Well. Done.
Ending the season with the tour’s highest average bull score (46.55 points) from his six highest-scored outs logged during the 2023 PBR Team Camping World Team Series and 2024 Unleash The Beast regular season, along with his Top 2-scored outs at the 2024 PBR World Finals, he’s performed at each and every stop along the way.
Racking up circuit-crushing figures including nine bull of event titles (including seven UTB honors and two PBR Camping World Team Series honors), bringing the most 47-point marks (three) and the highest average score into UTB’s new three-stage postseason format, the talented bucker allowed some additional drama to creep in late in the season, just as Dias has here through this May slate.
Coming into AT&T Stadium Sunday afternoon having surrendered qualified rides in three of his last five outs, albeit two of them to the eventual 2024 PBR World Champion in Dias, it was his most recent performances prior to his Championship out which caught the attention of the entire industry.
“There was a lot that came into play. I didn’t buck him since Albuquerque, I think it was about six weeks, and that was probably too long of a break. So when he did come back, his first out at Cowtown, I thought he really bucked but the judges didn’t like it as well as I did, but that’s their job. It was respectable, though, because a 44.5 is a fair score. The next out I was really disappointed in and that was on Sunday.” he shared.
Receiving just a 42.25-point bull score, his lowest of the season and the only mark to come in below 44.5 points prior to that moment, which he logged two nights prior during Round 2 of Eliminations action, the animal athlete appeared to be losing some of his shine.
But rather than being short a step, it appears the bull just wasn’t feeling well.
“Monday he didn’t eat and Tuesday he didn’t eat. A friend had some antibiotics for him, which we got Ok’d through housing and stuff, so we got him in my trailer and we gave him a shot of antibiotics. The next day he went back to eating and within two or three days he was 100%,” Owen said.
“I could tell when he ran into the bucking chutes today that he was going to buck. Just in his actions and stuff. When we got him out of the pen Saturday, we loosened him up up-and-down the alley and he started jumping and kicking like a new-born calf. When they do that, they feel really good, so I knew he was back to normal.”
Only needing a 37.75-point bull score to seal the deal by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, the next-level bovine insisted on putting on much larger of a show, eventually ditching Eduardo Aparecido in a quick 2.53 seconds en route to producing a rank 47.25-point score.
THAT’s how you finish a world title race!
Owen and Clark proceeded to field all of the hugs and handshakes they could handle. From riders to fellow stock contractors to the Dragon Slayer himself, J.B. Mauney, the pair posed for photos and were chatted up to the nines as the bull riding community showed its true colors, as this industry really is one big ole community of love.
“I’ve been nervous since I got here and then he didn’t have the trip last week that we wanted so we started to wonder ‘Has he given up? Has he lost it? What’s going on,’” he recalled.
“I get a little emotional and I really try not to but man, it was hard for me to keep it together at different times today … almost overwhelmed. I’m a blessed man and God has always blessed me through my whole life, on numerous things. I don’t always understand why except that he loves me, I’m a child of God and he blessed me. That’s all I know.”
With the season wrapped up, the bovine is set to enjoy some down time. Or … well, a good time, at least.
Knowing this bull BUCKS … it’s going to be a Hot Bull Summer.
“By this time tomorrow, he’s going to be with some cows. That’s as good a treat as he’s going to get,” he shared with a final laugh.
“That’s his job for the summer is to make some little Man Haters I guess.”
Ending the season officially 18-for-21, he deserved the flowers. And he got them.
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
