Ty Ellis of Sonningdale, SK (pictured right) and Brock Radford of De Winton, AB (left) tied for the victory at the Professional Bull Riders return to competition in Lethbridge this week. (submitted photo/Covy Moore/CovyMoore.com)

By Martin Martinson

Bull Riding Brilliance

Sonningdale’s Ty Ellis named co-winner of PBR event

Jul 24, 2020 | 4:25 PM

After a nearly 140-day hiatus from competition, the premier PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Canada Monster Energy Tour made its return with a bang this week, with the PBR Cooper Tires Invitational in Lethbridge, AB.

Featuring 25 of the top riders from across Canada, it was Sonningdale’s Ty Ellis who rose to the top of the leaderboard with a ride to remember.

Ellis tied for the event victory with Brock Radford of De Winton, Alta., as the pair delivered matching 86-point rides in the championship round. As a result, each rider walked away with a cheque for $2,688.98, in addition to 58.5 Canadian and 11.5 world points.

Making the victory even more impressive, this year marks Ellis’ first competing at the PBR level, although he has been competing professionally in rodeo for the last three years.

Ty Ellis, pictured here in action this week in Lethbridge. (submitted photo/Covy Moore/CovyMoore.com)

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Quick to show humility and a sense of humour, Ellis said the victory came as a bit of a surprise. He said he’s just grateful to have had the opportunity to compete this year, and ‘happy to be one of the lucky ones to stay on [his] bulls and get paid,’ as he put it with a laugh.

“It actually kind of took me as a shock, I didn’t realize I had that good of a chance to win and I guess I just sort of lucked out and it worked in my favor,” Ellis said. “It was quite a surprise actually, I hadn’t realized until they told me that I’d won.”

“It’s definitely a big deal,” he continued. “Especially being at one of the first Monster Energy Tour PBR’s; it’s obviously one of the bigger [events] and pretty exciting to get something like that under my belt, for sure. It’s definitely a good start to our short year.”

The victory marks a first for Ellis on the Monster Energy Tour. With the win, he is now ranked seventh overall in the Canadian national standings, 187 points back of Kindersley’s Dakota Buttar for top spot overall.

The next PBR Canada Monster Energy Tour event is tentatively planned for Sept. 26 in Medicine Hat, AB. The PBR Canada Finals are anticipated to be held in Saskatoon on Nov. 13-14; although in both cases event dates are subject to change as needed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

To keep up to date with the latest PBR events, visit their website.

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1