Aspen Valley’s Juancito Bollini rides off Flexjet’s Carlitos Gracida in the final of the 2016 USPA National Chairman’s Cup at the Aspen Valley Polo Club Thursday afternoon. Aspen Valley with the 13 1/2- 12 win. (Photo by ChukkerTV)
In the most exciting arena polo match of the season, Aspen Valley Polo Club (Grant Ganzi, Juancito Bollini and Lucas Lalor) got the best of Flexjet (Melissa Ganzi, Gracida and Juan Bollini) Thursday afternoon, 13½ -12, in the final of the 2016 USPA National Arena Chairman’s Cup at the Aspen Valley Polo Club.
Aspen Valley received one-half goal by handicap from the 11-goal Flexjet lineup and added to it with a goal awarded to them on a Penalty 1 with Lucas Lalor being fouled on his way to goal, 1½-0. Melissa Ganzi got her Flexjet on the scoreboard with their first goal of the game to trail, 1½-1. Lalor added a goal for Aspen Valley, 2½-1, but Flexjet answered right back with a goal from Juan Bollini that cut the Aspen Valley lead back to one-half goal, 2½-2. Another goal from Lalor was countered by the final score of the chukker from Juan Bollini, but it was Aspen Valley with the narrow 3½-3 advantage.
In second chukker action, Carlitos Gracida scored his first goal of the day on a 25-yard penalty shot that gave the lead to Flexjet, 4-3½. Grant Ganzi responded with a goal from Aspen Valley to re-take the lead, 4½-4. Goals from Gracida and Juan Bollini ended the period with Flexjet in the lead at the end of the first half, 6-4½.
A regrouped Aspen Valley lineup raced into the arena for the second half of play with goals from Grant Ganzi and Lalor taking the lead back from Flexjet, 6½-6. Gracida’s third goal of the game put Flexjet back into the lead, 7-6½, but the advantage was only temporary. Back-to-back goals from Juancito Bollini and a goal from Lalor ended the third chukker with Aspen Valley enjoying a two-and-a-half goal lead over Flexjet, 9½-7.
Gracida opened the fourth period with a 15-yard penalty conversion, 9½-8. Grant Ganzi made it 10½-8, following up on a run by Juancito Bollini to score but Melissa Ganzi got the goal back with her second score of the game, 10½-9. Juancito Bollini just missed scoring on a two-point shot into the Flexjet goal but stretched the lead to two-and-a-half goals, 11½-9. A two-point shot into the Flexjet goal by Lalor appeared to ice the game with Aspen Valley on top, 13½-9, but with less than three minutes on the game clock, Flexjet wasn’t ready to concede. Gracida added a goal from the field and followed it up with another 15-yard penalty goal, 13½-11. Gracida missed on a two-point attempt with teammate Juan Bollini scoring the final goal of the game for a 13½-12 victory.
Lalor led the Aspen Valley attack with six goals, earning himself MVP honors. Grant Ganzi and Juancito Bollini added three goals apiece; the team received one goal on a Penalty 1 and one-half goal by handicap for the win. Gracida’s six goals (four on penalty conversions) set the pace for the Flexjet offense. Juan Bollini was credited with four goals and team captain Melissa Ganzi scored twice in the loss.
Quarzo, and 8-year-old Bay stallion was named Best Playing Pony. Quarzo is owned by Halo Polo and was played by Melissa Ganzi.
Action continues at the Aspen Valley Polo Club on Friday with five teams kicking off the 2016 Rocky Mountain Open beginning with an 11am (MST) match between Flexjet (Ace Boyd, Melissa Ganzi, Lucas Lalor and Juan Bollini) and Los Amigos-Red (Paul Foster, Grant Ganzi, Juancito Bollini and Sebastian Merlos) on the Sopris Mountain Ranch field. At 3pm (MST) Jeff Hildebrand’s High Mesa Ranch will see ChukkerTV (Hilario Figueras, Segundo Merlos, Marc Ganzi and Tincho Merlos), Los Amigos-White (Alexandra Foster, Gabriel Gracida, Julio Novillo Astrada and Carlitos Gracida) and Tonkawa (Alex Gooding, Jeff Hildebrand, Jimmy Seward and Nic Roldan) compete in a round-robin with the winner facing the winner of the morning contest in the final at 11am (MST) on Sunday at the Aspen Valley Polo Club followed by a subsidiary match at 1:15pm (MST).
All matches will be live-streamed on ChukkerTV.com.
The Aspen Valley Polo Club is located at 3275 County Road 100, Carbondale, CO. The public is welcome to watch polo in a relaxed atmosphere. Admission and parking are free. The club’s Polo Hotline is 970-710-1663.