By: James Youness
PUEBLO, Colo. – If it seems like we’ve been taking some time to congratulate yet another rider with ties to the Kansas City Outlaws on their career-first Unleash The Beast event win this season …
… that’s because Leonardo Castro Ferreira became the third member of last year’s squad to accomplish the feat within the first 10 events of the season, courtesy of providing the contest’s only flawless 4-for-4 slate.
“I’m just putting everything in God’s hands and I’ve asked him that whatever happens, for it to be his will, and I think that shows you can never stop believing. This is what shows it off, right here,” he shared with Kate Harrison on the CBS Sports Network broadcast, via the translation help of Paulo Crimber.
Still a bit out of breath from the ride and ensuing celebrations, he credited his hard work for the win while letting fans know he’s just getting started.
“I’m very happy because that is the fruit of labor from the hard work every day and this is just the beginning of a long journey.”
With No. 11 Wingson Henrique da Silva capturing a career-first title of his own the previous weekend inside Toyota Center, is this thing becoming a Brazilian takeover?
Or is this transitioning into the season of the Outlaws?
The fact that No. 1 Cassio Dias (also a member of the Outlaws) has won three event titles already during what’s becoming one of the craziest rookie seasons in PBR history (including the first premier series win of his own in St. Louis, Missouri), it sure seems like a good time to be sporting orange and black during the summer.
It also 100% means that a Kansas City rider has now exited 50% (5-of-10) of this season’s premier series events in the winner’s circle, with Dias (3), Silva (1) and now Ferreira (1) all securing gold buckles during their respective campaigns. The craziest part? Two of the three are UTB rookies, while Silva finished as the tour’s 2023 PBR Rookie of the Year runner-up just last year.
However after exiting the contest with the tour’s first 4-for-4 performance of the season en route to securing his career-first event win at the second PBR Major on the year, the talented 19-year-old suddenly finds himself ranked No. 10 in the world ahead of this weekend’s showdown in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Seeing No. 2 Austin Richardson secure a pair of wins as the only Austin Gamblers rider to represent their squad atop the shark cage at the end of an event (who recently announced he’ll be stepping away from the sport for some time after opting into surgery to patch up an injury sustained earlier this season), Brady Fielder and veteran Joao Ricardo Vieira have teamed up to secure one-fifth of the tour’s events in the name of the Texas Rattlers, while Caden Bunch (Florida Freedom) represents the lone member of his recently-relocated red, white and blue team to win an event so far this year.
While Kansas City itself hasn’t turned in higher than a sixth-place finish in two years of postseason competition inside T-Mobile Arena (despite entering the playoff showdown in 2023 with a first-round bye, courtesy of their second-place 18-10 finish during the regular season), their riders have been firing on all cylinders when it comes to the 2024 iteration of the world’s grandest bull riding circuit.
The most recent J.W. Hart and Guilherme Marchi-coached talent to wow the crowd came in the form of Ferreira, who stormed into Golden 1 Center ranked No. 47 and with a mere two premier series appearances under his belt, both coming earlier this season, (having competed in Albany, New York, and Houston, Texas).
Producing a quality 7-for-14 (50%) record for the Outlaws last summer after the franchise selected him ninth overall in the 2023 New Rider Draft, just four picks after the organization welcomed Dias at No. 5 overall, Ferreira seems to have found his way to the right group.
The question begs whether or not the duo of skilled Brazilian riders can give Carolina’s Josh Frost and Sage Steele Kimzey a run for the best group of talent ushered in at the historic draft in Fort Worth, Texas, last May?
Well, Dias has been doing all he can to earn some checks lately, including coming up just short of the 2023 PBR Teams MVP last summer (just one ride score short of now two-time MVP Jose Vitor Leme).
Despite sending one of the world’s best talents in Dalton Kasel to the Austin Gamblers some time ago, (who currently occupies the No. 7 mark), Kansas City still has four of its starting riders ranked within the Top 12 of the Unleash The Beast World Championship standings, including Dias (No. 1), Ferreira (No. 10), Silva (No. 11) and Koltin Hevalow (No. 12), who’s now 10-for-25 (40%) on the year.
Extending the look to a Top 15 view, the Outlaws have the rights to 5 of the Top 15-ranked riders in the world right now, with No. 15 Julio Cesar Marques turning in an 8-for-26 start to a rookie season of his own.
But with PBR Camping World Team Series trades already heating up ahead of the 2024 season and teams limited to protecting just three riders during the upcoming PBR Teams Expansion Draft, suddenly the numbers game has changed up a bit.
While several of the team’s standout talents have enjoyed successful starts to the 2024 slate, no individual turned in a better effort last weekend inside Golden 1 Center than Ferreira. From setting a UTB-best score in the opening round to exiting the event with a big win, he appears set to remain competing against the best in the world, while his return to Touring Pro Division and Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour action will have to wait! Just like his second season of PBR Teams, it’ll be on hold for now, as the youngster has a different prize in mind suddenly: A World Championship.
With the premier series tour set to visit the lovely Salt Lake City, Utah, and the best bull riders in the world setting sails for Delta Center Feb. 9-10 during the 11th showdown of the 2024 slate, we’re taking a quick look back at some of the numerical takeaways from last weekend’s action in Sacramento, California, during this week’s By the Numbers!
220: Sure, it was the only 4-for-4 performance on the weekend, which naturally included the rider’s Top 3 scores on the premier series to date. It also represented the best finish among the five Outlaws riders who rank in the Top 15, while serving as the youngster’s first-ever event Unleash The Beast win. But after entering the event ranked No. 47 overall, it’s the 220 UTB points he collected for the huge win which rocketed the Brazilian all the way to the No. 10 spot. With just three PBR Majors on the calendar in 2024, and just one remaining, these events are the most important meetings of the season, short of the season-ending showdown down south, taking the form of 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast. Big events mean big points, and after Ferreira took home a career-best check for $119,950, he’s got more than a hundred thousand reasons to keep it going strong this weekend in Salt Lake City.
318.5: Edging out John Crimber by 53.75 points, it may have been his 58-point ride atop First String that made the ultimate difference for the 19-year-old (albeit you could claim any of the four rides were essential in getting the win). Accepting the low score and declining a re-ride, the talent wanted to secure points and keep his perfect record intact in Round 2 after besting Pookie Holler for 87 points (marking his career-best mark) in the opening round. Now 2-for-2 heading into Championship Sunday, a showdown with Blackstone loomed. Able to survive the requisite 8 en route to punching a ticket to the first short round appearance of his budding career, he entered Round 4 scorching hot. Completing his flawless feat while tying the best score of his career, which he produced just two nights prior, he stole the win from Crimber by posting an 87-point effort aboard HomeBru to earn the historic win. With an aggregate total of 318.5 points at the event’s conclusion, the total represents the most points earned at an event this season, surpassing Cassio Dias turning in 267.25 points in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, (3-for-4; 89.25, 86.25, 91.75) during the third event of the season.
No. 2 x 2: Speaking of Crimber, he managed his second runner-up finish in just seven UTB appearances, as the rookie was forced to sit out of a few early-season contests as he dealt with a hand injury. Which isn’t as cool as winning your career-first UTB event of course (as he’s now watched on as four different riders have secured said achievement), but still quite the encouraging sign, as the pair of second-place finishes have now come in two of the last three events he’s participated in. Doing his best Cody Jesus impersonation, who’s racked up a pair of runner-up efforts while chasing the elusive UTB win in now his sixth season on tour, Crimber watched on Sunday evening as Ferreira once again stole the honors, just two weeks after the budding superstar saw veteran Joao Ricardo Vieira pull a win out from underneath him in Tulsa, Oklahoma, albeit by 12.5 points compared to the 53.75 he lost by in Sac-Town. Still able to piece together an epic 3-for-4 showcase while earning 192 UTB points, the star of “The John Crimber Story, presented by Kubota” improved his ranking to the No. 4 spot by besting Sky Walker (86.75 points) in Round 2, Regulator (88.25 points) in the third round and Chateau Montelena’s Montana Jacket (89.75 points) during the short go to keep his elite status shining brightly. Just three months into his first trip around the world’s toughest circuit, he’s excelling and then some!
Event 2, Finish 3: Australian native Callum Miller has made his fair share of noise via success in international competition over the years, but when the 28-year-old entered Golden 1 Center in Sacramento during his second-ever UTB appearance unranked after going 0-for-2 the previous weekend in Houston, he knew he had to make some noise on this tour. The biggest on earth! Starting up a career record-shattering effort Friday night during an 86.5-point dance with Trump Train, he established a base en route to producing the first conversion of his UTB career. Back at it Saturday night, it was California Hearthrob who surrendered another qualified ride, allowing Miller to earn 85.75 points on his way to a perfect 2-for-2 start. While he wasn’t able to match his short round bovine jump-for-jump, sent to the dirt in a quick 2.2 seconds courtesy of the bucking efforts of one Manaba, it was his third-round ride atop Sharp Shooter (85.25 points) that garnered him his first podium finish during just his second-ever UTB appearance. Resurrecting himself from unranked status, he’ll still feel some pressure to ride this weekend inside Delta Center, but this time inside the cutline, as he brings a respectable No. 30 rank into the 11th showdown of the season.
45: Competing in just his fifth PBR-sanctioned event, it was Johnny Smooth who shined brightest out of the 100+ bovines punching the clock in Sacramento. First improving to a perfect 5-0 during his Round 1 showdown with Luciano De Castro, he dispatched the veteran cowboy in an instant 1.86 seconds in getting warmed up for the weekend on his way to earning a 44.25-point bull score. Returning to Golden 1 Center on Championship Sunday to represent his talents in the short go, he advanced his career record to a flawless 6-0 by flinging youngster Cort McFadden to the dirt in an even quicker 1.62 seconds. Rewarded with an event-high 45-point bull score, the only to meet the coveted mark, Johnny Smooth secured the first YETI “Built for the Wild” Bull of the Event honors for the first time in his budding career, going 2-0 overall on the weekend.
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
© 2024 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.
