Cord McCoy Invitational - Event Review, Part 2

When you combine staying up late, a cool room, warm covers, good bed and thick curtains, it makes for a perfect time to sleep in. On our second day in Ada, Oklahoma, that is exactly how we started our day. There was a small parade that morning, honoring Cord and Jet McCoy. We had planned to go to it, but with the late night before and the fact that we were going to have to get up early the next morning and head to a graduation for a family member, it just wasn't going to happen.

We finally got up, and did the usual morning things and since we had already gotten some signatures, there was no reason to go to the few signings that day. So, what to do with nine hours before the second and final night of bull riding? How about a movie? Ok. We went to see Robin Hood, with Russell Crowe. In my opinion, the movie was great. Tammie thought the movie was slow at first, then picked up and ended in a flurry. The sound in the theater was terrible, but you don't need great sound to see the arrows flying and swords clanging. After the movie, we went back to the Sante Fe restaurant. Again good food at a reasonable price. Then before the trip back to the hotel, we stopped at the best store that man has created, WalMart. We left our stadium chairs at home, and after sitting for several hours the night before on a dirty bleacher, our butts and backs were a little sore. The fix is a good padded stadium seat and WalMart provided the goods.

What do you do with a few more hours? Some time on the computer, TV watching, a short nap and ..... a two mile walk in 90+ degree heat. I took a walk around the neighborhood behind the hotel. It was hot, the neighborhood was not that great, but hey, I needed the exercise. Now it was time to get ready and head to the arena for some bull riding!

We got to the arena about 1 hour before the event started. The most notable names that were riding this night were; Ryan McConnel, Mike Lee, Pistol Robinson, Dusty Labeth, Travis Sellers, Pim Rosa, Clayton Baethge and of course Cord McCoy. There were only 32 riders and they separated them into 3 sections (or as the BFTS says, flights). They also had a Little Buckers competition with 9 youngsters from age 10-14 competing. The arena is inside, but it was hot and stuffy. There is no a/c, however there are big fans cooling off the fans in the main section, lucky them. We were not in the "main" section, we were sitting in the "Cord Zone", just as we did the first night. These are bleachers that are on the side, closer to the chutes, but no a/c and no fans. But hey, it's bull riding, not polo or cricket.

Section one: There were 10 riders in this section, with only 3 rides. Clayton Baethge 88.50, T.J. Pittman 85.00 and Pistol Robinson 78.00. Clayton's bull, Keep Wishin, came out bucking hard and spun into his hand and Clayton was spurring. On Pistol's ride, the bull spun, but did not buck at all, therefore he did not get a high score. Mike Lee was in this section. His bull came out out the chute, stumbled and was out of line and Mike could not hold on for the 8. I was surprised he stayed on as long as he did. Cord McCoy was in this section as well. When the gate opened, he slide to the side of the bull and just could not recover and came down.

Section two: There were 10 riders in this section, with only two getting scores. Pim Rosa 84.00 and Dusty LaBeth 82.50. Cord had five bulls of his own in this section, Bell Ringer, Kountry Store, JB, Electric Slide and Dry Heat. All of them looked good and did their job, because none of the guys riding these five got a score.

Section three: There were 12 riders in this section, with only two riders making the whistle. Matt Moore 88.00 and Dusty England 85.00. Matt was on Painted Kat and the bull bucked hard and Matt was able to get the second highest score in the long go. Ryan McConnel was in this section. He came out of the chutes, looked great, spurred, rode, then it fell apart. Ryan lost his rope and came up and off the bull around 7.5 to 7.8. I am only guessing on the time. There was not a visible 8 second clock, but when he came off the buzzer sounded. The judges said no score. They ran the replay of the ride on the screens and right as he was losing his rope, it looked like he might have touched the back of the bull with his free arm.

Before the short go and the break, there were nine Little Bucker rides. These were young guys that were riding mini bulls. The bulls are full grown, but just small or mini. There were two rides, Cody Dale Hodges, 13 years old, 86.00 and Colton Beatty, 14 years old, 74.00. Of note, Clancy Hart, JW Hart's nephew was the last rider. JW was there, helping pull his rope. Clancy came out, fell to the side of the bull and got hung up. As the bull was dragging him around, he was stepped on several times. After the ride, JW came into the arena and help Clancy out of the arena. He looked hurt, but you couldn't tell and there wasn't any announcements that he was seriously hurt, so I will assume that he was ok.

During the intermission, I got the chance to talk to Brandon Bates. His first commit was "This is rough going here tonight". It was a combination of not many rides, the heat and stuffiness of the arena, and in my opinion the crowd just did not seem that much into the event. The second night was better, but the first night the crowd seem to be lethargic and sit on their hands and not participate in the event. When there were great rides, there was some "polite" clapping and when one of the bull fighters did a great job of rescuing a rider or taking a hit from a bull there was either no clapping or very little. I will chalk this up to the heat and maybe the people were just drained.

On to the short go. There were 10 riders and since only 7 had gotten a score, three had to be called back. The three lucky riders were; Tuff Brumley, Steve Flitz and Cord McCoy. There was good bull power in the short go for the second night. Bulls such as; Buffalo Hump, Check Out, Mo Bandy, Sure Shot, Splat Kat, Hot Tamale and Marmaduke. The bulls proved their worth and the riders just could not keep up with such bull power. There was only one ride during the short go and a great ride it was. Dusty LaBeth score an 89.00 on Can Rock. Cord McCoy was on Buffalo Hump and Cord just couldn't keep up, or on. Pim Rosa was on Down Time and this bull made a huge buck coming out of the chute and blew Pim off in no time. Pistol Robinson was on Sure Shot and when he was bucked off, he did a complete 360 in the air and came down hard. Clayton Baethge, who came into the short go as the leader, was no match for Hot Tamale and came down before the 8.

The results for the second night: 1) Dusty LaBeth, 171.50 2) Clayton Baethge, 88.50 3) Matt Moore, 88.00 4) T.J. Pittman, 85.00 5) Dusty England, 85.00 6) Pim Rosa, 84.00 7) Pistol Robinson, 78.00

Since this was a two day event, the top 9 finish for the combined two days: 1) Trevor Kastner, 174.00 2) Reese Cates, 173.00 3) Nathan Schaper, 172.00 4) Dusty LaBeth, 171.50 5) Tanner Jones, 164.50 6/7) Clayton Baethge and Kasey Hayes, 88.50 8) Matt Moore, 88.00 9) Brant Atwood, 87.50

Note: As the event ended, Brandon Bates kept announcing that Kasey Hayes had won the event with a combined 2 bull score of 174.00. There were several of us that looked at each other and said "Kasey didn't win". I talked to Cord after the event and asked him about this. He told me that Kasey did not win the event, but since Brandon had already said three times that Kasey won, he didn't want to correct him in front of the crowd, so he went along with it.

A special shout out to Cord McCoy. Not only did Cord do everything to promote this event, including riding bulls, but he helped raise $30,000 for the Relay for Life.

Well, it was off to the Sante Fe restaurant one more time, then back to the hotel and the four trip back home the next morning and a graduation to attend. After an event is over, especially a BFTS event, you have this feeling like "what do I do now". Well, there are plenty of things to do during the summer and of course there is that thing called "WORK" (got to pay to go to the events, they're not free). The next BFTS event will be July 16-18 in Tusla, of which we will be going and of course I will do a blog on that event. In the meantime, I will have several other blogs to fill the time. I am working on getting rider, stock contractor and bull fighter interviews and hopefully I will have some posted before Tulsa.