Little Yellow Jacket, a famed rodeo bull from North Dakota - co-owned by Bernie Taupin - that has only been ridden 12 times in 85 tries since 1999, is being put out to pasture.

Bernie Taupin is a co-owner of Little Yellow Jacket with other investors. Taupin said the bull will retire from the Professional Bull Riders circuit at the end of the season in November 2005, following the World Finals in Las Vegas.

"It's like losing a Muhammad Ali, Joe Namath or Joe Montana," said former world champion cowboy Michael Gaffney of Albuquerque, New Mexico. "This is a premier athlete of the business."

Gaffney managed to stay aboard the 1,650-pound red bull for the required 8 seconds during an event at the Idaho Center in Boise in April 2004. He scored 96.5 points out of a possible 100 for the ride, tying the record for the highest-marked ride in Professional Bull Riders history.

Little Yellow Jacket has been ridden once this year by Australian cowboy Brendon Clark, who scored 91 points.

"In my humble estimation, he ranks up there with Bodacious and Red Wolf as one of the greatest of all time," said Taupin.

Turning nine years old in August, the three-time "bull of the year" has been valued at an estimated $250,000 and will be retired for breeding.

"Little Yellow Jacket has bucked hard all his life since he was 2 1/2 years old," co-owner Joe Berger of Mandan, N.D., said. "Next spring, we'll turn him out with some cows and raise a few calves by him."

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