Powered by UBBI Bulls Texas High School Rodeo Champ Wins Truck and Don Gay Tour Championship

STEPHENVILLE, Texas - Sept. 29, 2014 - PRLog -- In the action-packed final round of the Don Gay Bull Riding Tour/ United Bucking Bulls, Inc. National Finals, the bull riding champion walked away with a nice check and a brand new Ford pick-up truck from Mel Hambelton Ford of Wichita.

The funny thing is, he’s barely legal to drive it.

Brody Yeary, 17-year-old bull rider from Brock, Texas came into the finals as the No. 1 man on the DGBRT, and he left that way too.

With season earnings of over $19,000, Yeary emerged as the 2014 Don Gay Bull Riding Tour Champion.

“I never thought I’d win a truck, but I had the opportunity, so thanks to everyone at the Don Gay Bull Riding and UBBI,” Yeary said and added that the first place he’s going to drive his new ride is a bright and early start in the morning back to Texas to compete in a high school rodeo.

Another rider who was having a good night is Ricky Aguiar, Stephenville, Texas, who posted a score of 87 points on Cracker Jack, a bull owned by Carpenter & Hudgins.

“I had seen the bull one time before and thought we’d fit pretty good together, got blessed and made a good bull ride,” Aguiar said. He added that he hadn’t had the best results earlier in the tour but was hoping to make it up at the finals. With a paycheck of over $3,000 in the Championship Round, which included the highest pay out in the Rank-Rider Score competition as well, Aguiar’s hopes came to fruition.

Hopes were also high on the other side of the chutes, as stock contractors vied for their own championships through their bucking stock. The top-50 bulls competed in the Championship Round, with the top-25 in each category, Derby, 3-year-old bulls and Classic, 4 year-old-bulls, which had bucked in the first two rounds of competition, coming back for Saturday night.

And one man who knows firsthand about competition is Stock Contractor, Professional Bull Rider and Amazing Race Contestant, Cord McCoy.

McCoy/ 2 Bit Bucking Bulls’ bull Playgun, named after a famous horse of a friend of McCoy’s, took home the title of Derby Finals Champion and $10,000 in Finals money.

“He knows his job. He likes the arena floor. Even when the rider comes off, he keeps working the crowd,” McCoy said, citing wife Sara’s part in qualifying the bull for the Finals.

“It’s bull competition. If you’re trying to produce the bulls, the only way to prove you’re raising top-quality bulls is to bring them to town and compete,” he said.

Another stock contractor who shares that sentiment is Cory Melton.

“It just gives everybody in the bull business the opportunity to put value to their animals. In this business, with the UBBI steadily growing, it’s fun to see it get bigger and bigger. There’s definitely a lot of interest here,” Melton said of UBBI.

His bull, Bad Tattoo, owned by Folds/Strickland/Nelson/Ray/Melton, took home double honors in the Finals. Bad Tattoo was crowned the Round Three Finals Champion for the Classic section with a score of 87.5 in the Championship Round, as well as World Champion, with his total season earnings over $20,000.

Taking the title of World Champion in the Derby section was the bull Hard Time, owned by Moss Brothers.

“People like him. They know what he’s going to do, and he’s rider friendly. So if someone does ride him they’re going to be a lot of points on him,” explained Owner, Gideon Moss, who added that Hard Time had had a “hard time” of his own, recovering from a mid-season injury to come back and clinch the title.

As a special treat in the Championship Round, the boisterous crowd got to witness the Futurity Bonus Round, seeing 10 of the top 2-year-old bulls strutting their stuff rider-less for serious bonus cash, almost $7,000 extra, sponsored by the Kansas Star Casino.

“It’s the first time in the history of the business, [that] we’ve bucked 2 year olds in front of a crowd of people,” enthused UBBI General Manager, Randy Schmutz.

And when it was all said and done, it’s safe to say, that crowd got what they paid for on a championship Saturday.