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\nBy ALAN SNEL LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\tM ore tickets are sold. TV ratings are up. And he\u2019s on T-shirts and coffee mugs, appeared in ESPN The Magazine Body Issue and has his own action figure and Fathead.<\/p>\n
\tBushwacker, the baddest, most muscular bucking bull in the bull-riding sport, has meant big dollars to his owner, Julio Moreno, and the Professional Bull Riders Inc.<\/p>\n
\tEight-year-old Bushwacker, 1,750 pounds of brawn and athleticism, is retiring this year, and this week\u2019s 2014 World Finals at the Thomas &Mack Center is the bull\u2019s swan song.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe\u2019s opened doors for the bulls,\u201d Moreno said Monday morning as he watched his prized bovine relax in an indoor ring at South Point\u2019s Priefert Pavilion. \u201cPBR has put him out there, and they\u2019re marketing him good \u2026 He\u2019s a fan favorite. He\u2019s more of a favorite than the cowboys. He\u2019s put PBR on the map.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMoreno places Bushwacker\u2019s value at $2 million and said he turned down an $800,000 offer a few years ago.<\/p>\n
\t![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i60.tinypic.com\/1zbf0vd.jpg\")
\n\tTicket sales are expected to jump 10 percent at the World Finals because of Bushwacker\u2019s last appearance on the bull-riding circuit, said Jim Haworth, chairman and CEO of Pueblo, Colo.-based Professional Bull Riders.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBushwacker has been a rock star and has given us an opportunity to sell merchandise and tickets,\u201d Haworth said. \u201cHe\u2019s been on every national TV broadcast.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHaworth noted TV ratings of PBR events with Bushwacker as the drawing card are up 20 percent this year and that T-shirt sales have increased 40 percent thanks to the star bull.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe\u2019s probably the most popular athlete we\u2019ve had in the PBR,\u201d said Flint Rasmussen, a veteran PBR entertainer. \u201cWe introduce him as a celebrity and people stand up and go crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAdded Rasmussen\u2019s friend, Shorty Gorham, a PBR bullfighter: \u201cI know people who ordinarily wouldn\u2019t go to a bull riding event buy a ticket because it\u2019s Bushwacker\u2019s final year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tJust because Bushwacker is retiring at the World Finals and drawing Derek Jeter-like treatment at his final appearances, it doesn\u2019t mean the powerful bull won\u2019t be earning his keep when he soaks up life in the pastures of Moreno\u2019s ranch in Oakdale, Calif.<\/p>\n
\tBushwacker\u2019s semen will be likely worth $5,000 per unit as his job morphs from arena performer to calf maker, Moreno said.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHe\u2019ll have 21 girlfriends and all the pastures, hay and grain he wants,\u201d Moreno said.<\/p>\n
\tMoreno said Bushwacker is at the peak of his athleticism and could perform for another three to four years. Bushwacker is in such good health that Moreno said he could live until 15 or 16 \u2014 or even longer \u2014 because of retirement at age 8.<\/p>\n
\tBushwacker makes money for Moreno in other ways, too. Moreno expects a Bushwacker calf to sell for $50,000 to $100,000 on Saturday and his nieces and nephews to sell for about $40,000 each.<\/p>\n
\tThat\u2019s not counting the $600,000 in earnings Bushwacker has piled up since he began bucking cowboys as a 2-year-old, Moreno said, adding he has a $100,000 insurance policy on the bull.<\/p>\n
\tBushwacker is drawing special treatment and protection at South Point, where two security guards and 24\/7 video surveillance watch over the superstar bull. He hangs out in his 12-by-12-foot outdoor pen next to his half-siblings, Mr. Bull and Roy.<\/p>\n
\tBushwacker is among more than 400 PBR bulls being housed at South Point. They are transferred via trailer to Thomas &Mack for the nightly competition.<\/p>\n
\tBushwacker makes his first appearance this week at Thomas &Mack on Thursday, and his finale is Sunday.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhen he was 3 years old, I knew he had what it took,\u201d Moreno said. \u201cHe did whatever it took to get that cowboy off his back.\u201d<\/p>\n
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By ALAN SNEL LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL M ore tickets are sold. TV ratings are up. And he\u2019s on T-shirts and coffee mugs, appeared in ESPN The Magazine Body Issue and has his own action figure and Fathead. Bushwacker, the baddest,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}