Las Vegas Weekly

November 8, 2009 · 10:36 AM

PBR Photo Gallery: Five riders tie for first in Round 6

By Robin Leach

Round 6 of the 2009 Professional Bull Riders World Finals at Thomas & Mack Center on Nov. 7, 2009.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

For the first time in the 16-year history of the Professional Bull Riders World Finals, not one, not two, but five riders tied for top honors in the sixth round last night. Whether that means they all win an individual gold buckle or get to rotate it for two months each in the next year will be decided this morning! However, all of them won a $14,000 payday, each scoring 89.25 points.

Today is the final day of the two-weekend event because the raucous excitement at the sold-out Thomas & Mack Center last night was akin to a stampede of bulls. The riders and the angry animals are all ready for championship Sunday, with leaders Kody Lostroh and J.B. Mauney ready for their final battle for the $1 million prize.

Kody was among the five who split first place, while J.B. just missed out. The other winners were Aaron Roy, Cody Nance, Robson Palermo and Brian Canter.

Fantasy star Angelica Bridges played curvy cowgirl for the night -- click HERE for our post and photos this morning. The Luxor headliner met J.B. and reigning world champion Guilherme Marchi after the red carpet arrival and before their rides. Hmmm, maybe the cowboys were slightly distracted?

It was the third consecutive night that Kody Lostroh won, even though it was the first time he had four other riders for good company: “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a five-way split in one round at the World Finals. It was dang sure a different night. But it’s kind of expected in this pen of bulls, too. They were so even that a lot of the bulls were cutting the same tracks, so you’re going to have some ties,” Kody said.

It also was Kody’s sixth successful ride in six consecutive nights and added to his lead over second-place J.B. in the season-long points race for the PBR world title. J.B. was 2 points behind in Round 6 with 87.25, which put him in 12th place last night, but he still leads the Vegas event over Kody by half a point! However, overall in the eight-month season, Kody leads him by 1,034.50 points.

In today’s two rounds that start at 11:30 a.m., it is a real neck-and-neck race between the two men to the $1 million prize and gold belt buckle to be claimed by the new champion. All 40 riders will compete this morning, and then the Top 15 will go up against one another this afternoon on the live NBC broadcast.

Can J.B. surpass Kody to win it all? He has to win both of today’s rides perfectly and Kody has to be thrown off just once. Now you know why it’s such a down-to-the-wire bruising battle!

Laughed J.B.: “I’d being doing well if it wasn’t for him. He rides too well.”

We’ll provide real-time, live-action reports on Twitter today as the PBR World Finals draw to a close, and tomorrow we’ll have the full, final photo wrap from our contributing photographer Tom Donoghue, who shot this remarkable photo gallery.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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