There are few sports in the world that rival the exciting, adrenaline-fuelled bravery of bull riding, and we have been treated to some truly incredible stuff at the PBR this season.
The action rolls on from Sunday morning when the world’s best cowboys and bulls square off at the PBR Lucas Oil Invitational in Iowa.
We’re just a week away from the return of the Australian PBR action at Caboolture, north of Brisbane, and you can tune up with our preview and tips for the PBR Lucas Oil Invitational below!
We get underway with an intriguing match between world number five Kaique Pacheco and Peep Show, and we’re getting a lovely price for the bull.
Pacheco’s recent form has been good – he has podiumed at two of his last three events including the Ariat Invitational last week.
He is probably a justifiable favourite, but Peep Show has also found strong and consistent form recently, and this early in the program, the bulls should have the upper hand.
Another interesting contest comes up early on Sunday and I am once again happy to side with the bull, at a nice price.
Sugar Boom Boom was defeated by Cole Melancon at his last appearance, but his form prior to that buck was excellent and including four-consecutive wins, in slick time.
Montanha’s recent form has been inconsistent at best, and I simply cannot figure out why he has been priced as the favourite in this match.
If you had backed Jose Vitor Leme in every buck that he has contested in 2020, you’d be up an awful lot of money.
Vitor Leme has been truly dominant this season, and rarely does an event go by where he does score plenty of points and either win, or finish close to the top of the podium – he has won five of his last six events, including three in succession leading into this.
As that would suggest, he was far too good at the Ariat Invitational last week, and we’re getting $2.35 for him to beat Moulin Rouge this week, the world’s 655th-ranked bull.
I’m A Secret is understandably a short-priced favourite to defeat Mauricio Gulla Moreira at the PBR Lucas Oil Invitational, and this looks like a great opportunity to take ‘under’ in the 3.5 second ride duration market.
Moreira has managed to score points at just two of his last seven events, while I’m A Secret has managed to unseat the cowboy in five of his six appearances at the PBR, four of which were under the 3.5-second line.
Low Dog is a clear favourite to defeat world number seven Colten Jesse at the PBR Lucas Oil Invitational, but I think that this will be a far better battle than the prices suggest.
Jesse has posted some nice scores at two of his last three events and has continued to improve with each performance since returning from injury.
With the exception of a loss to Joao Ricardo Vieira two back, Low Dog’s form has been almost faultless, and he represents and extremely difficult prospect for any cowboy.
Interestingly, he has left it late in two of his last five to defeat is opponent; throwing Mauricio Gulla Moreira in 6.09 and Jose Vitor Leme in 6.13.
Given my respect for Jesse and how all of the recent form stacks up, I’m going to roll the dice on a similar result here and back the bull to win in the band of 6-6.99 seconds, for a big price.
As is typically the case, this week’s suggests PBR multi combines four bulls, all firm favourites in their respective matches to win, for a nice combined price.
At $1.46, Old Fort Days injects the most value into this week’s multi, but I’m still expecting him to make reasonably light work of Marco Eguchi.
Our three other selections are also extremely well placed to win.