Fans of bull riding will want to be at this year’s Grain Millers Harvest Showdown as the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Canada’s Touring Pro Division (TPD) will be making its inaugural stop in Yorkton.
The Yorkton Exhibition is excited to be putting on such a high profile event. The caliber of the PBR will have attendees see some of the best bull riders and the best bulls compete as a part of the two nights at Harvest Showdown” said Ron Hanishewsky – General Manager of the Yorkton Exhibition. “We are pleased to be a part of the tour and leading into the finals and looking forward to two great nights of entertainment and bull riding in Yorkton.”
The Pro Division of PBR Canada regularly features Canada’s best bull riders along with top international athletes, squaring off against the rankest bucking bulls from the nation.
Jason Davidson, Director of Operations for PBR Canada, and event producer for the upcoming Yorkton rodeo said the event will bring PBR to a new area.
“We’ve kind of leap frogged from Saskatoon to Winnipeg the last 12-15 years,” he told Yorkton This week, adding “this is something we’ve put together in the last eight months … We’ve been pretty adamant this is what the city of Yorkton needed.”
The bull riding action begins at 7:00 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday, (Nov. 9-10), presented by Yorkton New Holland.
All riders will attempt one bull each during Friday’s Round 1 and Saturday’s Round 2. Following the second round, the Top 10 will advance to the Championship Round for one more ride and a chance at the event title. In addition to competing for points towards the Canadian national standings, riders will also have the opportunity to earn world points in an effort to earn a berth onto the elite PBR: Unleash The Beast.
Davidson said the Yorkton event is the same calibre of bull riding being seen on TSN2 this year with the Monster Energy Tour, adding people can tune in and get a good feel for the excitement of the event to be held in the city in November.
The Yorkton event will mark the final Canadian tour stop prior to the season-culminating PBR Monster Energy Canadian Finals, presented by Mac’s/Circle K and Dakota Dunes Casino, on Nov. 23-24 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where the 2018 PBR Canada Champion will be crowned.
The newly announced event comes on the heels of one of the most fiercely contended national title battles in league history.
Coming down to the final outs of the 2017 PBR Canada Finals, Zane Lambert (Ponoka, Alberta) overcame a 500-point gap in the national standings, going 1-for-2 on the last night of the season culminating event, to earn the event title and his second PBR Canada Championship. Lambert is the only rider to win the finals event multiple years, let alone in back-to-back seasons, having first won in 2016, and is only the second rider in PBR history to hold multiple Canadian titles.
Brock Radford (De Winton, Alberta) finished second in the season-end rankings after leading the majority of 2017 compliments of his historic four consecutive event wins on the nation’s Touring Pro Division.
With 25 Canadian events already held thus far this season, the race to be crowned the 2018 PBR Canada Champion is proving to be equally as exciting. In the current standings, once again led by Radford, the top five contenders are separated by fewer than 1,000 points, with less than 300 points between the top three.
Fans can also expect to see a number of home province riders competing, including Cody Coverchuk (Meadow Lake), Justin Lloyd (Tisdale), Jared Parsonage (Maple Creek) and three-time PBR Canada Champion Aaron Roy (Yellow Grass).
The riders will have some added incentive to come to Yorkton, said Davidson.
The third edition of the PBR Global Cup will be announced for a location in the United States soon, he said. The event which debuted in Edmonton in 2017, and was held in Australia earlier this years, pits bull riding teams from the top five nations in the sport, Canada, the US, Australia, Brazil and Mexico.
Davidson said veteran Canadian rider Aaron Roy of Yellow Grass, SK. will be in Yorkton evaluating talent for the 2019 Canadian team.
“This will be a very, very important event to bull riders,” he said.
Tickets for the inaugural event in Yorkton will go on sale soon, and fans can check with PBRCanada.com for tickets to all 2018 events as well as the 2018 PBR Canada Finals at the SaskTel Centre on Nov. 23-24.
