by Butch Thurman

Oklahoma City--Valdiron de Oliveira rides his way back into the winner’s circle with a victory at the Professional Bull Rider’s Built Ford Tough Series Tour in Oklahoma City Sunday. He clinched the win in the final ride aboard “Mellow-Yellow Jacket” for 88 points.

“I picked that bull because I knew he would be pretty-good,”  he said.  “He was a great bull. I knew it would be alright.”

Oliveira rode four of five bulls, and that includes four in a row after getting dumped in round one.  He earned more than $34,000 and now trails J-B Mauney in the world standings by just 39.25 points.  He says he has had a good start to the new season.

“I feel better right now because I just won,” he said.  “I feel good as I ride my bulls. My leg is a little sore, but I will be alright.” Ryan Dirteater was second, and Mauney was third.

The PBR Tour heads back east Saturday to Atlanta to open a four-week stretch that takes them to some big indoor stadiums.  Other stops include Reliant Stadium in Houston, Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and then to the Motor-City in Detroit at Ford Field.

It’s been talked about before as a possibility and we learn now that Chris Shivers will be calling it quits at the end of this season. “As far as being done, this is it for me.  This is my last year.” He said.

Looking through the record books there are so many stats we could talk about.  He’s turned in 92 rides worth 90 points or better and has 60 rides that were marked between 88 and 89.75 points.  He was the first rider to crack $1-million, $2-million and $3-million in earnings and he is a two-time world champion.

The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo ranks No. 1 in the world as the highest-grossing ticketed event for venues with seating capacity of 15,000-30,000 in the just released Venues Today Year-End Report.

Venues Today, a trade publication for sports and entertainment facilities, ranks venues internationally, by total gross revenue from October to October. The rankings are based only on special, one-time or multiple-performance ticketed events. The Wrangler NFR has sold out every performance of its 10-day run each December for nearly a quarter of a century.

Steer roper Vin Fisher is glad to have his number one horse “Jeep” back from medical leave.  The two combined to win the second round and the three-head average of 39.7 seconds to win his event at San Angelo, Texas.  Fisher earned more than $4,600.

“It gives you so much more confidence to have your No. 1 horse back,” Fisher said. “He came up crippled around New Year’s and he was sore for six weeks. I’ve been taking him to the vets for injections and resting him to make sure he was absolutely sound.”

While the steer roping is complete, the San Angelo Rodeo continues through February 25th.

Butch Thurman of Pendleton, OR., has covered professional rodeo for 32 years.
His email address is butch@rodeosportsupdate.com

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