Bulls and Blood, Dust and Mud! Pro Bull Riding Returns Saturday, August 20

DEL MAR — The roar of the Sunday crowd will be deafening as Professional Bull Riding (PBR) thunders into the Del Mar Arena Saturday, August 20, 2011, during the Del Mar Invitational, a Touring Pro Division event.

The PBR’s Touring Pro Division offers up-and-coming bull riders and riders not competing on the elite Built Ford Tough Series (BFTS) the opportunity to compete in PBR-sanctioned events while earning money to qualify them for the BFTS and the PBR BFTS Finals.

This event features the world’s toughest riders and the industry’s most notoriously mean and nasty bulls, to create non-stop, edge-of-your-seat action. A diverse group from different backgrounds and personalities, over 800 cowboys hold a PBR membership but; they all share the same goal — to conquer the rankest bulls in the world.

Hailing from every corner of the world,
including the United States, Australia, Canada and Brazil – these cowboys have grown up on ranches and in the inner cities, but their determination and will to succeed sets them apart from other professional athletes.

Returning this year will be Bull Poker and Cowboy Teeter-Totter. During Bull Poker, four cowboys sit at a poker table in the middle of the arena with a bull on the loose. Knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, knowing when to walk away, and knowing when to run are vital to staying alive and/or winning the prize! In Teeter Totter, the cowboys bob up and down on the teeter-totter, trying to stay out of the bull's way. Who will be brave enough and remain seated long enough to avoid becoming mincemeat? Can the four cowboys on the teeter-totter outsmart the snorting, angry bull and avoid spilling blood?

Professional Bull Riders, Inc. was founded in 1992 by 20 accomplished bull riders who joined together and took a business risk to make bull riding, the most popular event
in traditional rodeo, into a stand-alone sport. Each rider chipped in $1,000 to help launch his dream of someday seeing bull riders recognized as mainstream professional athletes. Since that time, the PBR, unlike any other rodeo or bull riding organization in North America, has been owned and operated by its athletes.

Tickets for the Del Mar Invitational Professional Bull Riding Event will go on sale at www.ticketmaster.com and at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Box Office late this spring.
For more information on Professional Bull Riders, go to www.pbrnow.com.
For information on the Del Mar PBR event, click on the "Events Calendar" link at www.delmarfairgrounds.com.

The 22nd District Agricultural Association is a State of California agency that owns and operates the Del Mar Fairgrounds, Surfside Race Place, Horsepark Equestrian Center and the Del Mar Golf Center. The 22nd DAA produces five events each year: The
San Diego County Fair, the Del Mar National Horse Show, Professional Bull Riding (PBR), The Scream Zone and Holiday of Lights. The Fairgrounds hosts more than 350 events annually, the largest of which is the live horse racing meet each summer, which is operated by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club for the 22nd DAA and the State of California. For more information, visit www.delmarfairgrounds.com.