Entertainment
5 November, 2025
Bullriding finals sparks excitement
AN action-packed night awaits at the Atherton Showgrounds this weekend, with the Great Northern Bullriding Series Finals set to deliver a thrilling show.
After hosting several events this year, the series now rolls into Atherton for a finals showdown where the best cowboys in the region will be putting it all on the line for a championship buckle.
Leading the standings for the Open Bullride is the much-loved Braydon Wellby, who is an astonishing 5,605 points ahead of second-placed Ky Borghero.
The Novice title is tightly contested at the top, with Jeremy Weldon sitting on 2,070 points and Mac Flood on 1,947. Local cowboy Josh Snell sits atop the Junior standings on 581.5 points while Caleb Sheahan and Rex Walker are tied for second on 445 points.
The Mini Bullriding 11-U14 category is being led by Nate Lawson on 537.05 points, and Dimbulah cowboy Weston Hilditch leads the 8-U11s on 264.20 points.
Series director Peter Brown said he was looking forward to the finals, saying it’d had been a long but good year. He also said he was still riding high after the electric, and record, crowd at the Savannah in the Round music festival.
“That was crazy, just crazy. I don’t know how everyone saw, they said there was about 5,000 people there,” he said.
“It was a good start to the festival and it was good for our series. I was talking to some of the cowboys, they said the atmosphere was just next level – they’d never ridden in an atmosphere like that.”
The exposure the event received seems to have boosted its audience, with ticket sales for the finals already up on last year’s numbers. Mr Brown said proceeds from the event will once again be donated to the Make A Wish Foundation.
“We’ve had a real influx in ticket sales over the last week,” he said.
“Tickets are up on last year, so it’ll be a good event, we should get a couple of thousand there and make a bit of money for the Make A Wish Foundation.”
Every cowboy who has won a round during the year will feature at the event, making for some high-level bullriding action. Mr Brown also said his bull contractor “Mouse” will be bringing his “top shelf” to the finals.
“You’ll see a couple of previous Bucking Bulls of the Year, and potentially Move n Groove, who will be the Bucking Bull of the Year I think. He’s unridden and no one wants to get on him, he’s just a rank son of a gun,” he said.
The event will be held this Saturday at the Atherton Showgrounds from 5pm, with action kicking off from 7pm. There’ll also be a wide variety of food available and a bar open until late, with the official afterparty being held at the Barron Valley Hotel.
