Heading to the Big Apple

Having suffered through a long, dreary week of working our tailbones clear off, we at the Stockyard are chomping at the bit for the Built Ford Tough Invitational in New York this weekend. Baltimore was great, except for the part when 24 riders qualified in the first round, which always tells the Stockyard Queen that the bulls were, er, sub par. So we will hope for ranker critters in the chutes this weekend, and meanwhile stock up on the supplies we will need to comfort us, should the action be less than we hope for. Like lots of liquor and potato chips.

Already there's been a fair amount of coverage for the New York event, starting with a story about Luke Snyder in the New York Times. I would not have chosen Snyder, but I guess that's why I work for this impossible b**** rather than the Times.

Reese Cates, who is rapidly growing on me, has a new post up on his blog on the PBR website, in which he reveals that he was going to New York early to help opening the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. We dutifully dragged ourselves over to CNN to see it, and there he was, in the company of J.B. Mauney and Randy Bernard, who, sans cowboy hat, looked a lot more like a stockbroker than the head of a sports organization involving crazed livestock. And then there are the bulls.

The CNN reporter covering the stock market, who up until now hasn't particularly bothered me, showed herself to be nearly as tiresomely New York as the Times, acting like the very notion of riding a bull was something beamed straight to her from Mars. Since clearly that's where she comes from, you'd think she'd have heard of it before, especially since Bernard and Adriano Moraes rang the opening bell there three years ago, too.

Reese also revealed he'd been asked to come by and tape a sequence for Rachel Ray's television show. There's no information up yet on Ray's website about when we can expect to see that, but I will try to keep an eye open and give you all the head's up for what might be a very entertaining show.

Apparently this is Reese's first trip to New York, in which case all the advice I can offer is, don't get out of the car and start trying to walk to Madison Square Garden, Reese. You may end up in places where a dude in a cowboy hat would not be very welcome.

And finally, here's a picture of Buck Shot, the bull held in a pen outside the Stock Exchange, of whom I've never heard. He's a nice grey Brahma bull who appears to be resting up for the bucking, though, so maybe by Sunday night, I will have his name down on the Stockyard's Wall of Stars. Let 'em buck!