By Alex Webbe
Expectations are high for the 2010 winter polo season at the International Polo Club with over 33 teams competing at all levels of competition and eight of the world’s ten 10-goalers showing up to compete on the Wellington fields.
Adolfo Cambiaso, Mariano Aguerre, Lolo Castagnola, Gonzalito and Facundo Pieres, Pablo MacDonough, Juan Martin Nero and Eduardo Heguy will all be saddling up for the coming Florida season. The introduction of the season was presented on Wednesday afternoon at the Mallet Grille before a crush of media interested in everything from the dedication of the Piaget Championship Field and the naming of the Nespresso Grande Pavilion to this year’s status of the Lechuza Caracas stables.
The finishing touches were being put on the Nespresso Grande Pavilion on the east side of the Piaget Championship field and the Veuve Cliquot International Pavilion the northwest corner of the field as various press, players and sponsors arrived for the season-opening Press Conference at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington Wednesday afternoon.
Greetings were afforded the assemblage by the club’s President of Operations, John Wash, and Polo Manager Jimmy Newman as a host of reporters and photographers crowded around a handful of players and polo VIPs that would help kick off the 2010 season.
Argentine 6-goaler Nacho Figueras, more familiar as the face of Ralph Lauren’s Polo opened with a report on the state of the game of polo. “We’re in the process of seeing the sport grow to a level of prominence that puts it on a par with some of the other great sports,” said Figueras. “We’re getting a lot of support and seeing a lot of new faces at the games,” he added, “I’m looking forward to another exciting season here in Wellington.”
The International Polo Club is the home of the top polo competitions in North America, and can honestly lay claim to the winter polo capital of the world. Players from across the country and around the world will be competing throughout the coming months for prestigious and storied trophies, some of which have been in play for over a hundred years.
Reflecting on the terrible tragedy from last season that took the lives of twenty-one of the game’s top horses the audience waited anxiously to hear from Lechuza Caracas polo manager, Esteban Scott, about the team’s attempt to bounce back.
“After the terrible loss, we put all of our efforts into rebuilding our string,” said Scott, “but it isn’t something that you can do in just a year. We gathered a group of top horses and shuffled horses of ours that were in England, Argentina and Venezuela to be able to come to the field this season and be competitive. We’ll have to wait and see just how successful we were.”
Victor Vargas’ Lechuza Caracas team was devastated by the lost of the horses and forced to withdraw from the United States Open competition last season, but seem anxious for the 2010 season to begin.
With six teams playing in the season opening single-elimination Iglehart Cup on Sunday, January 3, local fans and spectators will get a taste of the early competition as the first of four 20-goal tournaments gets underway. Nine teams will take to the field by January 10th in the Joe Barry Memorial Cup before play begins in the Ylvisaker Cup on January 21st.
The Herbie Pennell Cup will end the 20-goal season in February and the first of the three 26-goal tournaments will get underway on February 11th, followed by the USPA Piaget Gold Cup in March and the US Open Championship in April.
“It’s going to be a very exciting season,” said America’s highest-rated player, 9-goaler Nick Roldan. “There are some great teams and world-class players here again this year,” said the Wellington resident, “and I’m looking forward to meeting them on the fields again this season.”
In the course of the season, over 33 teams will compete at various different levels of play as the field will consist of some of the game’s top players, including eight of the world’s ten 10-goal players.
“We’re excited to be recharging our relationship with this grand sport,” said Piaget North America’s CEO Larry Boland. “And we’re looking forward to a long and successful relationship with both the International Polo Club and the game of polo itself.
The 2010 polo season at the International Polo Club is scheduled to begin on Sunday, January 3 with a Noon game between Gillian Johnston’s Bendabout team and John Goodman’s Wanderers/Isla Carroll foursome. The 3pm stadium contest in the Iglehart Cup competition will feature Lyndon Lea’s Zacara team and Jim Whisenand’s EFG Bank team.
On Wednesday afternoon, January 6, at 1 pm, Patagones will meet the winner of the Wanderers-Bendabout game followed by a 3 pm contest between the Hawks and the winner of the Zacara-EFG Bank match
2010 Iglehart Cup
Bendabout EFG Bank
Gillian Johnston 1 Jim Whisenand 0
Nick Roldan 9 Andres Weisz 5
Owen Rinehart 7 Pancho Bensadon 8
Ulysses Escapite 3 Luis Escobar 7
20 20
Hawks Patagones
Julian Mannix 2 Gonzalo Avendano 2
Fred Mannix, Jr. 6 Julio Gracida 4
Mariano Aguerre 10 Carlos Gracida 8
Cachi Garcia 2 Carlos Avendano 6
20 20
Wanderers/Isla Carroll Zacara
John Goodman 1 Lyndon Lea 1
Nacho Figueras 6 Gonzalo del Tour 6
Sugar Erskine 7 Jeff Hall 7
Kris Kampsen 6 Toto Collardin 6
20 20