By Mandi McCary
NAMPA, Idaho – Ford Idaho Center was at full volume on Friday night in Nampa, Idaho, as Callum Miller (Warwick, Queensland, Australia) of the Texas Rattlers won Round 1 of the Progressive PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Nampa Unleash The Beast event with an 89.25-point ride for his team.
The opening night of the two-day event in Nampa featured the third installment of the Land.com Texas Cup within the Monster Energy Team Challenge, presented by Camping World, an extension of the PBR Teams league that brings head-to-head, team-vs.-team bull riding games to the sport’s elite individual tour.
Despite Austin dominating the last matchup with Texas, their hopes of a repeat were dashed as Miller tipped the scales in favor of the Rattlers early on in the matchup. The Rattlers clinched the win in the final rivalry matchup by a narrow 6.5 points.
Launching from the chutes aboard Skywalker, 30-year-old Miller earned 28 UTB points. The round win moved him from No. 52 to No. 46 as he rolls into Saturday’s second round atop the leaderboard.
Texas’ other game-dominating scores came courtesy of Daniel Keeping’s (Montague, Texas) 83-point matchup with Lock ‘n Load and Ezekiel Mitchell’s (Rockdale, Texas) 87 points aboard Bamboozle.
Mitchell’s crowd-pleasing ride put him in a five-way tie for third place in the round with world leader Dalton Kasel (Muleshoe, Texas), two-time PBR World Champion Jose Vitor Leme (Ribas do Rio Pardo, Brazil), Arizona Ridge Rider Bruno Carvalho (Alvares Florence, Brazil) and the Florida Freedom’s Joao Lucas Campos (Porto Feliz, Brazil).
As the first man out for Austin in the rivalry game, Kasel bested Whip for 87 points. Following with a less than ideal 78.75-point ride on HomeBru, 2018 PBR World Champion Kaique Pacheco (Itatiba, Brazil) narrowed the gap for the Gamblers. Hoping for a walk-off win, Leme was Austin’s last man to ride. Falling just short, he knocked down Buckaroo but was unable to boost the team to a win.
With just one regular-season event left before the 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast May 8-18 in Texas, No. 1 Kasel’s third-place night earned him 15 UTB points, moving him 51 points ahead of world No. 2 Brady Fielder (Clermont, Queensland, Australia).
Hoping to gain ground on Kasel’s lead in the UTB standings, Fielder clung to Project X but was no match for the powerful bovine, hitting the dirt at 5.52 seconds.
World No. 3 ranked man, John Crimber (Decatur, Texas) is not competing in Nampa.
Seven-time PRCA world champion Sage Steele Kimzey (Strong City, Oklahoma) held tightly to the No. 4 spot despite being bucked off of Tijuana Two-Step.
Hot on Kimzey’s heels, charging up the standings, veteran Arizona Ridge Rider Luciano De Castro bested Buckshot for 83.75 points, earning 8 UTB points. He now sits 48.92 points behind Kimzey.
Thiago Salgado (Navirai, Brazil), who rides for the Florida Freedom in the separate PBR Teams League, finished the night in second place in the round after a picture-perfect dance with Good Riddance. The 18 UTB points he earned moved the 22-year-old up one spot from No. 38 to No. 37.
The stunning five-way tie and identical 87-point scores between Kasel, Leme, Carvalho, Campos and Mitchell earned all five men 15 UTB points in the gold buckle race.
Leme moved up one spot from No. 27 to No. 26 with the ride, while Carvalho did the same moving from No. 40 to No. 39.
Campos holds strong at No. 45 in the world, while Mitchell held at No. 48.
Action for the Progressive PBR Nampa will continue with Round 2 followed immediately by the championship round on Saturday, April 19, at 6:45 p.m. MT.
All three rounds of competition in Idaho will be available LIVE and FREE on PBR’s X channel (https://x.com/PBR), RidePass on Pluto TV, PBR’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@pbr), PBR’s mobile app (https://qrco.de/bdtdKp), and PBR’s app on connected TVs, including Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku and Google TV. The stream for the Progressive PBR Nampa continues Saturday, April 19.
PBR RidePass on Pluto TV will offer re-airs and on-demand replays of PBR Unleash The Beast events and is available on desktops, laptops and mobile devices via www.pluto.tv.
PBR Unleash The Beast – Progressive PBR Nampa
Ford Idaho Center – Nampa, Idaho
Event Leaders (Round 1-Round 2-Round 3-Event Aggregate-Event Points)
1. Callum Miller, 89.25-0-0-89.25-28 Points.
2. Thiago Salgado, 88.25-0-0-88.25-18 Points.
3. Dalton Kasel, 87-0-0-87.00-15 Points.
(tie). Jose Vitor Leme, 87-0-0-87.00-15 Points.
(tie). Bruno Carvalho, 87-0-0-87.00-15 Points.
(tie). João Lucas Campos, 87-0-0-87.00-15 Points.
(tie). Ezekiel Mitchell, 87-0-0-87.00-15 Points.
8. Austin Richardson, 86.75-0-0-86.75-12 Points.
9. Clay Guiton, 86-0-0-86.00-11 Points.
10. Adriano Salgado, 85.5-0-0-85.50-9.5 Points.
(tie). Mauricio Gulla Moreira, 85.5-0-0-85.50-9.5 Points.
12. Paulo Eduardo Rossetto, 85.25-0-0-85.25-8 Points.
13. Luciano De Castro, 83.75-0-0-83.75-8 Points.
14. Daniel Keeping, 83-0-0-83.00-8 Points.
15. Kaique Pacheco, 78.75-0-0-78.75
16. Felipe Furlan, 74.75-0-0-74.75
Brady Fielder, 0-0-0-0.00
Sage Steele Kimzey, 0-0-0-0.00
Andrew Alvidrez, 0-0-0-0.00
Cort McFadden, 0-0-0-0.00
Keyshawn Whitehorse, 0-0-0-0.00
Lucas Divino, 0-0-0-0.00
Eduardo Aparecido, 0-0-0-0.00
Leonardo Castro, 0-0-0-0.00
Dener Barbosa, 0-0-0-0.00
Claudio Montanha Jr., 0-0-0-0.00
Julio Cesar Marques, 0-0-0-0.00
Koltin Hevalow, 0-0-0-0.00
Derek Kolbaba, 0-0-0-0.00
João Ricardo Vieira, 0-0-0-0.00
Hudson Bolton, 0-0-0-0.00
Alan de Souza, 0-0-0-0.00
Boudreaux Campbell, 0-0-0-0.00
Mason Taylor, 0-0-0-0.00
Leandro Zampollo, 0-0-0-0.00
Alex Cerqueira, 0-0-0-0.00
Trace Redd, 0-0-0-0.00
Conner Halverson, 0-0-0-0.00
Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media
