HOUSTON - The Top 35 bull riders in the world and the toughest bulls on the planet explode into Space City on Saturday when the Professional Bull Riders bring the Built Ford Tough Series WinStar World Casino Invitational to Reliant Stadium.

Bull riding begins at 2 p.m.

Tickets start at $15, and include admission to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest and a concert by Roger Creager. Tickets can be purchased at www.Ticketmaster.com, and by telephone at (800) 745-3000.

It is the first time since 2001 that the BFTS has visited Houston, and the only time that it has had the honor of being part of RODEOHOUSTON™. Part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, RODEOHOUSTON™ is the largest and richest rodeo in the world, scheduled to pay $2 million in 2012. It is also an attendance leader, with more than 1 million fans annually, including more than 1.2 million last year when the PBR sanctioned the bull riding.

Asteroid and J.B. Mauney lead the world at the moment, and both will be in Houston on Saturday.

The 2012 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo will run Feb. 28-Mar.18 at Reliant Park in Houston.

Each of the Top 35 riders in the world will ride in Round 1 Saturday. Every rider with a qualified ride in Round 1 will advance to the Built Ford Tough Championship Round, where they will each compete with one more bull. The overall event winner will be the rider with the highest combined score from the two rounds.

Leading the way into Houston is Alvin, Texas, native Douglas Duncan, and top-ranked J.B. Mauney, who has earned almost $100,000 through the first seven events of the season. The field will also include two-time PBR World Champion Chris Shivers, who announced that 2012 would be his final season last Wednesday, and promptly went on to win the Atlanta Invitational over the weekend, notching his 93rd ride of 90 points or more.

Tickets start at $15, and include admission to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest and a concert by Roger Creager.

The bulls in Houston will include 2011 Reserve World Champion Asteroid, who has three of the top four bull scores in 2012, including the highest of the year, with 47.5 points out of a possible 50 at the PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle in Sacramento in January.

Fans will be able to meet Dickies® DuraBullfighters Jesse Byrne, Shorty Gorham and Frank Newsom, and Dickies® bull riders Ryan Dirteater and Skeeter Kingsolver on Friday, Feb. 24, from 5-7 p.m. at Fiesta Mart, 4711 Airline Dr., Houston.

Five PBR personalities, including Brian "Pee Wee" Herman and Ross Coleman, will be signing autographs from 12-1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25, at Bass Pro Shops, 1000 Bass Pro Drive, Pearland, Texas. There will be free family-friendly activities from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., including stick-bull riding and bull roping as well as mechanical bull rides.

Houston is the second stop of a four-week stadium tour that began last Saturday in Atlanta, and will continue with visits to Arlington, Texas, on March 3 for the Dickies® Iron Cowboy III presented by WinStar World Casino at Cowboys Stadium, and Ford Field in Detroit on March 10.

Houston is the eighth of 28 stops on the 2012 BFTS schedule, which opened on Jan. 6-8 with capacity crowds at Madison Square Garden in New York. The BFTS will make 28 stops in 23 states before the Built Ford Tough World Finals in Las Vegas on Oct. 24-28. The World Finals are where the PBR World Champion will be crowned and awarded the coveted championship buckle and a $1 million bonus. The richest bull riding event in the world, the World Finals has a total purse of more than $2 million.