They came flying down the field and the winners would have made George Oliver proud. The game was man, ball and tail unless called and head the other way at a high rate of speed. The Tackeria Team was all about the old-style. The Polo Gear Team had other ideas and they worked for about 3 minutes, but those were the first 3 minutes of the first chukker. After that it was a blue express and it was at high speed the rest of the afternoon.

Jofie (Joseph Stuart) in the lead of the Tackeria squad and a Western flavor with the Riceman (Shane Rice), the Palomino (Jason Crowder) and a Little Mac (Frederick Mannix, Jr.). Tackeria did a major attack on the Polo Gear squad of Big Bird (Kris Kampsen) and his set of rockets including The Mig (Miguelito Torres, Jr.) , Del Walton and a hard-riding Julio Gracida. It was just too much West Coast offense. After the 4 minute mark the game looked bad on opening for Tackeria as Polo Gear shoved 3 goals in like 1-2-3 and it was 3 and 0, but it was nerves I am sure. It was the first time for Jason Crowder and Shane Rice to play at IPC, but from the fourth minute of the first chukker until the last second of the game, the surprise was on. The game was tied in the 4th and then it was adios amigos as the Tackeria took it all away right then and there. With a quick tail and a man on the run dominated the rest of the game.


Winners: Tackeria: Joseph Stuart, Jason Crowder, Frederick Mannix, JR. , and Shane Rice.

As George Oliver would have said “do not play with the ball and take the man first and then H I T  I T.” That is exactly what the legend Memo Gracida told them and they did it. The weather was very good after a very warm morning. It was partly cloudy, cool and the field played great. The action was delightfull you might say.

The teams were made up of all North Americans 25 and under only. One player is 25 and the youngest is Miguel Torres, Jr. at 19 who is just a little younger than Julio Gracida. It was a great effort to get this to work as it was planned at the last minute and it all happened because Mimi Gracida did it. She led the charge from getting sponsors to finding the field. It was a very big step in building on American polo what we have begged the PTF and USPA to help do for the last 15 years. Mimi did it alone, but what make it magic was to see our children grow up to be World-class polo players. We all as North American polo people need to help make it a “made in Americas” kind of effort.

The Teams and myself would like to thank Mimi Gracida as she did most of the work and organizing, but also a big thanks to Memo Gracida who furnished horses and trucks. Also a special thanks to Tony of the Tackeria,  Paul and Stephany from Polo Gear and Vinny of Texas Polo, La Martina and John Goodman for the field the many support people Rick Sears, Kevin Faucett, Jimmy Newman, Shane Winkler, the timers and flagmen and all the grooms who added another game to their busy schedules this time of the year. I think it was a huge success in opening eyes to to show that North American Polo Players can play POLO!

 To The rest of the World remember these names when you are building a team.

 Miguel Torres jr    4 goals             Joesph Stuart     3  

 Del Walton            4 goals             Jason crowder   5

 Kris Kampsen       6 goals             Fred Mannix      7

 Julio Gracida        5 goals              Shane Rice        5

See ya.

2007 George Oliver Memorial – Photo Gallery by D. Lominska

March 3rd, ’07: Tackeria vs. Polo Gear

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