LOS LUNAS, N.M. – The danger and excitement that is professional bull riding is making its way to central New Mexico in a couple weeks, and it’s going to be the perfect way to show off the best in the business.
Cord McCoy’s Xtreme Bulls Shootout will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 9-Wednesday, Oct. 11, at the Southwest Event Center in Los Lunas. Tickets are $20 in advance at McCoyRodeo.com, $25 at the gate and $35 for VIP seating.
“This is going to be a great week in Los Lunas, and we get to kick it off with a pretty cool bull riding,” said Cord McCoy, a bull riding superstar who qualified for the National Finals Rodeo and PBR World Finals before gaining international fame on the CBS-TV reality series “The Amazing Race.”
“We wanted to have this in Los Lunas because there are some great cowboys that come from this part of New Mexico, and we know there are a lot of great bull riding fans that will travel to an event like this.”
That’s true, and he’s expecting a big crowd to show up for three nights of intense action. This will be a good time for bull riders to get a jump start on the 2024 ProRodeo campaign. The regular season ends Sept. 30, so anything earned after that will count toward next year.
Money is vital in rodeo. Not only does it pay bills and cover expenses of getting up and down the road, but it’s also how the standings are tabulated. Dollars equal points, and only the top 15 contestants on the money list at the end of the regular season will advance to the NFR, the sport’s grand finale that takes place in December at Las Vegas.
That’s where the vibrant earnings available at the shootout comes in to play. McCoy, who co-owns the stock contracting company McCoy Rodeo with his wife, Sara, will inject $15,000 in local money into the event. That will be mixed with the contestants’ entry fees to make up the total purse. The winning cowboy can add more than $5,000 to his pocketbook and have a leg up on the competition early in the 2024 campaign.
“We wanted to give these guys a chance to make some good money early in the season,” McCoy said. “We’re going to test them with the bulls we’re going to bring, and we want them to put on a show for everybody in New Mexico.”
The bull power is extensive. McCoy has been raising quality bucking bulls since before he retired a decade ago, and he has several top-caliber animal athletes that will be a major part of the action. That will include Ridin Solo, which has earned the PBR Bull of the Year title each of the past two seasons.
Ridin Solo may be the cream of the crop among the animals that will be featured in Los Lunas, but McCoy boasts of dozens of other elite bulls that will be mixed throughout the three days of competition. “Our goal is to have a world-class bull riding and amazing competition, but we are also here to entertain the fans,” he said. “We want this to be an event early in the week that gets people excited so they can go back to work the next day and tell everyone else about it. I’m thrilled with the possibilities.”