The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
It was about 16 years ago when Mr. John Goodman turned the Polo World round by building the International Polo Club. It shocked the polo community. It seems like in about 20 year timeline, things change. John Oxley built Boca Raton in 1980, but Boca was a big place already at Royal Palm. It just moved to a big new stadium on Clintmore Road. Then Palm Beach Polo came to be. Big Bill Ylvisacker shocked Palm Beach with a very high -end house for polo and Equestrians. It finally was all gone to equestrians, jumpers and hunters. It was a huge facility, but not as big as Calgary’s Spruce Meadows. Polo was definitely looking fragmented when John Goodman stepped up and made it so big. It was fancy as well. All class and iteasily became a huge success to the whole polo community. Now with John out of polo, we are less than 20 out and looking for the next Godfather of polo. There are very few patrons these days like Mr Goodman, who will step up or can do what he did. Thank you Mr. Goodman. It was quite a ride. What will the future be?
I read on the Internet today where Ben & Jerry were arrested for bugging our great politicians. Even Ice Cream people are tired of them. The great thing is that we can vote for them, but they seldom vote for us. Just ask the Veterans who made their life free. Look where it got them, especially the ones who need help. I am not much on them, but maybe we do need someone who has made a living running a business before they get a 100 % retirement on us. I guess we put them there so who is to blame?
Back to polo. In the US Open. Wed. is the day Orchard Hill and Mr. Van Andell take on WhiteBirch led by Mr. Brant. Steve and Peter have been around for a while. It should be a big one. Then the young Gun Patrons hit the turf and this will be a war. Audi and Marc Ganzi loaded with 4 flags. Mannix of Canada, Brazilian Rodrigo and Super smooth Argy. Gonzalo take on the Master Adolfo Cambiaso and Dubai’s Rashid Albwardy. This will be a tough one as Cambiaso has not been stopped in quite a while, but Audi has been together for 2 years. The question is … will it help? I do not bet against Cambiaso. I am sure they will have good crowds in Florida, but talk about big crowds @ the polo fields look at Empire Polo Club … 99,000 + last weekend and more this weekend of course not many horses at Coachella this week.
see ya