Valiente’s winning tradition continued Sunday in the championship final of the Mount Sopris Cup at Aspen Valley Polo Club.
In a hardfought game, Valiente (Marc Ganzi, Roberto Zedda, Agustin Nero, Bob Jornayvaz) defeated Tonkawa, another well-established polo team, 12-10.
Best Playing Pony Dolfina Barata owned by Valiente. Photo by Louisa Davidson
Tonkawa (Jeff Hildebrand, Carlitos Gracida, Pablo Spinacci, Jimmy Seward) mounted a late rally in the fifth and sixth chukkers to come within one goal, but fell short.
Nero scored three goals and played well defensively and was named Most Valuable Player.
Dolfina Barata, owned by Valiente and played by Zedda, was selected Best Playing Pony.
Marc Ganzi of Valiente works the ball downfield.
Photo by Louisa Davidson
Tonkawa was also making its Aspen Valley Polo Club. With the addition of the two teams, the five-team tournament was one of the most competitive of the summer season.
Marc Ganzi scored a game-high six goals including an insurance penalty goal in the final chukker. It was a final tuneup for Ganzi, who will compete in the USPA East Coast Challenge for the next three weeks at Greenwich (Ct.) Polo Club.
Ganzi and his Audi teammates Nic Roldan, Juancito Bollini and Miguel Novillo Astrada are among favorites in the six-team field. Audi is one of the winningest polo teams in the last decade.
Teammates Zedda and Jornayvaz each had one goal. Hildebrand led Tonkawa with four goals. Gracida, Spinacci and Seward each scored two goals.
Valiente’s polo organization, based in Denver and Wellington, Fla., captured the 111th USPA 26-goal U.S. Open in April and in 2014 the Triple Crown in Sotogrande. The team also won the 28th annual Denver Polo Classic recently in Littleton, Colo.
In the three-team subsidiary, La Karina (Riley Ganzi, Brian Boyd, Juan Bollini, Nic Roldan) topped Los Amigos (Alejandra Foster, Gabriel Gracida, Mariano Gracida, Paul Foster), 5-4, and FlexJet (Grant Ganzi, Juancito Bollini, Lucas Lalor, Stewart Armstrong), 4-1, to win the round-robin tournament. Los Amigos defeated FlexJet in the other game.
The tournament is named after Mount Sopris, a twin-summit mountain just south of Carbondale and named for Richard Sopris, a former mayor of Denver. It dominates the skyline of Carbondale and serves as the unofficial symbol of the area.
Valiente’s Roberto Zedda takes off with the ball. Photo by Louisa Davidson
Nine summer tournaments have been played at Aspen Valley Polo Club. Melody Polo Team won the first two tournaments–Independence Cup and ChukkerTV Challenge; Aspen Valley Polo Team won the Aspen Valley Cup I; Travieso won the Craig Sakin Memorial; La Karina won the Basalt Handicap Cup and Aspen Valley Cup II; KIG captured the Emma Challenge; Audi won the inaugural ChukkerTV Arena Challenge Cup; FlexJet won the Louis Vuitton Cup and Valiente, the Mount Sopris Cup.
The club’s season-ending tournament is this week’s Rocky Mountain Cup.
ChukkerTV, the leaders in polo broadcasting, has been live streaming most of the club’s tournaments.
For the next three weeks, ChukkerTV’s Summer Tour, a 13,000-mile cross country trip featuring several U.S. Polo Association tournaments, will live stream the East Coast Challenge at Greenwich (Ct.) Polo Club. High goal teams will compete for the Perry Cup, one of the sport’s most prestigious tournaments that dates back to 1905. Opening Day is Sunday, Aug. 23; semifinals, Aug. 30 and finals, Sept. 6.
Roberto Zedda of Vaiente balances the ball in the air while avoiding a hook.
Photo by Louisa Davidson
ChukkerTV, an independent media company, was the first to introduce state-of-the-art live streaming technology in January, 2014 at Grand Champions Polo Club, where it was well-received for its cutting-edge technology and ability to promote the sport to a larger audience and continues to build and improve its technology.