PUEBLO, Colo. – Reigning Stock Contractor of the Year Chad Berger has had a hard time this week pulling into the driveway to his ranch in Mandan, North Dakota, and glancing toward the new bullpen he and his team were in the process of installing.
Berger was closing in on putting the finishing touches on a brand-new pen featuring a custom branded sign to house two-time YETI World Champion Bull Smooth Operator so the bull could enjoy a peaceful life in retirement.
“It is heartbreaking as anything,” Berger told PBR.com on Tuesday evening. “I drive by the pen now and think, ‘Son of a gun, he never got to spend a day in there.’”
Berger made the tough decision to put Smooth Operator to rest this weekend after the 12-year-old retired bovine superstar had taken a turn for the worse because of a bout with cancer.
“After the World Finals, I could tell something was going on with him,” Berger said. “We took him to Dr. (Gary) Warner, and he was diagnosed with cancer. He started eating again and seemed to be improving until recently. Once he started getting so thin, I didn’t want him to be suffering anymore.”
Smooth Operator’s late-career resurgence, which resulted in him becoming the oldest two-time PBR World Champion Bull (2019, 2020) at 9 and 10 years old, came when Berger was actually in one of the darker periods of his stock contracting career.
In April 2018, Berger stunningly lost the No. 1-ranked bull in the world when Pearl Harbor passed away unexpectedly. Pearl Harbor was 10-0 and had a commanding lead in the World Champion Bull race. It had appeared that Berger had a franchise bull to build his operation around, and then everything changed that spring evening.
Berger would sit on his porch drinking a cup of coffee in the days and weeks after Pearl Harbor’s passing, wondering how he could finally find a bull who could deliver him his first sole World Championship. He was at a loss.
Lo and behold, Berger had a World Champion in the wings on his ranch in Smooth Operator.
In the days following Pearl Harbor’s passing, Berger could not fathom that a 9-year-old bull on his ranch would fill the gap of losing Pearl Harbor and bring him a World Championship.
“I am a crazy believer, but when we lost Pearl Harbor, I think he sent a little bit of his talent down to Smooth Operator,” Berger said this week. “Pearl Harbor was on his way to winning several world titles, and gosh dang, he passed away, and all of a sudden here comes Smooth Operator.
Berger then paused.
“He covered up a lot of wounds,” Berger continued. “I was hurting. It was something I will never forget. Some of my greatest memories are Smooth Operator winning that world title the first and the second time. He was such a fierce competitor. The injuries and whatnot from earlier in his career, to even get a shot at a world title, and to do it at 9 and 10 years old, he was a true warrior.”
Smooth Operator was born on New Year’s Day in 2010, and he would eventually make his premier series debut four years later with a 2.16-second buckoff of Douglas Duncan in Oklahoma City.
The 4-year-old bull would go 7-0 in his first season against the PBR’s finest competition, but it was at the 2014 PBR World Finals that Berger truly came to believe that Smooth Operator may have elite potential. In Las Vegas, Smooth Operator posted his first 45-point bull scores with buckoffs against three-time PBR World Finals event winner Robson Palermo (3.28 seconds) and eight-time PBR World Finals qualifier Kasey Hayes (2.18 seconds).
Berger would later acquire Smooth Operator from Rockin Rafter P Bucking Bulls following the 2014 World Finals.
The Mandan native, though, is never 100% sure whenever he acquires a bull if he will develop into a star or even a consistent championship-round bucker. Berger knows sometimes it can be a roll of the dice, but it did not take long in 2015 for him to believe Smooth Operator had the potential to be a superstar.
“I could just see he could be a great bull,” Berger recalled. “When I first got him, those first five or six trips, he was ranker than when he won the world title. He just bucked so hard.”
Smooth Operator would buck off future World Champion Kaique Pacheco in his next out, giving him 17 consecutive buckoffs to begin his career. 2008 World Champion Guilherme Marchi became the first rider to reach the 8-second mark on Smooth Operator when he rode him for 83.5 points in Billings, Montana.
The 5-year-old bull would not be ridden again for the rest of the season but would post two subpar outs at the World Finals, finishing second to last in the 2015 World Championship race after being named a finalist.
Berger left Las Vegas wondering if there was something wrong.
TITLE ASPIRATIONS PUT ON HOLD
Smooth Operator was eventually diagnosed with a career-threatening back injury following the 2015 season. He then sustained a broken kneecap in 2016 that led to Berger placing him on the sidelines for six months. All talk of a world title was on hold as Berger stressed not bucking Smooth Operator ever again unless he was given a vote of confidence from his veterinarians and a clean bill of health.
Smooth Operator began his career with a sparkling 23-1 record on the premier series. Still, Berger was unsure if his stout bovine could return to competition and be in the title conversation.
Smooth Operator would go a respectable 7-1 on the premier series in the second half with an average bull score of 43.78 points, but he was far from a world title contender. Regardless, Smooth Operator would qualify for a third PBR World Finals and teamed up with Marchi to tie for the Round 2 victory with 89.5 points.
Berger was extremely proud of Smooth Operator’s comeback.
“I didn’t know if he would ever be able to come back and be as good as he was,” Berger said. “It took him a while. He didn’t give it his all for a while because he was being cautious with his body. He finally started to turn it on.”
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