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Thursday, April 3, 2008

Edgewood Bull Rider Remains a Contender

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
    Travis Briscoe took it like a man.
    The 20-year-old cowboy from Edgewood exhibits a calm, mature demeanor in his fourth season on the Professional Bull Riders' Built Ford Tough Series tour.
    Though Briscoe had a subpar performance— by his standards— during the PBR's three-day Ty Murray Invitational at Tingley Coliseum, his experience told him it's not the end of the world. He didn't make the event's championship-round cut on Sunday.
    "It's just one of those things," Briscoe said. "I didn't fail. I tried my guts outs. It's a long season."
    Briscoe, who won three of the first six events in 2008, remains in second place in the overall BFTS standings with 4,535.50 points. In addition, he continues as the PBR's leading money winner with $225,377.17 earned via BFTS purses.
    The Ty Murray was the 14th stop on a 34-event BFTS tour.
    Briscoe, a former Moriarty High student, did get a good score of 89.5 on Dark Side in the third round after falling off his rides in the first two rounds on Friday and Saturday. He stayed aboard even as the bull suddenly changed its rhythm.
    Briscoe wound up in a tie for 19th. He would have finished much higher if his second-round ride on Hot Pistol had counted.
    After a review of video footage, much like an instant replay challenge in football, the judges ruled the bull dislodged Briscoe with 7.8 seconds on the clock, just short of the required 8 seconds.
    "I thought I had it," he said. "My hand just pulled out of my rope. It just pulled out."
    Briscoe would have loved winning on his home turf. But it was fellow New Mexican L.J. Jenkins who won the event. Jenkins is also 20.
    "I called it right (on Saturday) when I said L.J. was going to win it," Briscoe said.
    Guilherme Marchi, No. 2 going into the short-go, rode his fourth bull and scored a 72.50 on a bull named The Game. But the Brazilian refused a reride opportunity after that next-to-last ride of the day.
    "I knew I just had to stay on to win it (in the final ride)," said Jenkins, who was given his choice of a bull for the short-go as the leader after three rounds. "I had got 90 points on (the bull Bonafide) in a Challenger (series) event. I knew I could do it with him."
    Jenkins again earned 90 points on Bonafide, a big brown behemoth, to garner his first event win of the 2008 season. The cowboy, clad in red chaps, flipped his hat in the air after the ride.
    "Just winning (a PBR) event is big," said Jenkins, who hails from Texico. "But to win the Ty Murray (in Albuquerque) is the best. It's better than when I won the (2006) World Finals."
    Jenkins scored 88 points on Rock Star in the third round earlier on Sunday. The black bull whirled like a dervish in front of the chute, but Jenkins held on for dear life.
    The cowboy won $44,872.50 and amassed 1,038 points at the Ty Murray. Marchi was second with 908.25 points.
    Marchi retained his top spot in the overall BFTS standings with 6,729.50 points. Jenkins is seventh with 3,952.50 points, and he has earned $70,928.33 in BFTS events this season.
   
Farewell to Tingley?
    Randy Bernard, the PBR's chief operating officer, said Saturday that the Ty Murray probably will not return to Tingley after a 12-year association with the Expo New Mexico facility, according to stories in the Albuquerque Journal.
    "I've told my people that we won't be back here again," Bernard said. "We love coming here. The fans are incredible here. But it's frustrating. We play a lot of venues that aren't the greatest. But the management here is the most pathetic."
    The apparent last straw was that Tingley's lighting was insufficient at the start of Friday's nationally televised opening event.
    Judith Espinosa, Expo manager, said they will meet with the PBR after trying to piece together what happened.
    Bernard said Sunday he's 90 percent sure the Ty Murray won't return to Tingley. The PBR is considering other venues, such as the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho and an arena in Glendale, Ariz.
    "We've got a lot of great fans," said Bernard, who also noted other issues regarding Tingley's management. "The last thing I want to do is pull out of the state."