100th Year Anniversary of the Spreckels Cup Tournament @ San Diego Polo Club – Pretty Lady Lisa Bosstick of Madison Square has only been in polo for the last decade. She has blazed her name on the Spreckels Cup 3 times in the last 4 years and its all history. A fired up Madison Square went to goal often early in the game. They had a lot of misses early in the game, but still managed a good lead over the Easy Rider (Chris Maloney) and the Doctor (Gaston Von Wernich) as Tritech was down by 5 with 3 to go. The Doctor reopened the wound and took the scapel. Jofie went to the line many times in the 4th and 5th and with a huge crowd screaming for whoever it was all even at the start of the 6th. It was a wakeup call for the Palomino (Jason Crowder) and Mr. Fast-etta (Mariano Fassetta). They came down the field with nothing on their minds but the top spot on the podium. It was four-legged comet named Commit showing why she took the big blanket home as Most Valuable Pony. She carried Madison Square to the title. It was a very good game on a very nice day with a awesome crowd and they got what they paid for. Lady Lisa did battle with the big boys and came out on top. Madison Square had a new player this year as Nicolai Galindo replaced Jofie as handicaps changed and Saint Nick did himself and his team well. He stepped up with some huge plays for the team in black. It was the final day of big polo in town, but its not over.
There was also a 1:00 game for the 6-goal Spreckels Cup finals that was also a battle. The Pink Panthers (Ohana) with a record of 6 and 0 would suffer their first defeat as Kelly Maloney’s Ohana could not close the door on Billy Boy Hoyman and the hard-charging Abby Riggs with the Torres connection (Marcus and Millichap Team). It came down to the final bell as well. It was a long day for the Maloney name as you see she is the Easy Riders sister. It just was not a Maloney day you might say. Maybe they should have been in Santa Barbara where the finals was rained out at 1/2 time so there was no winner. I hear Klentner Ranch was smashing Chadmar before the storm, but there was only champagne raining at San Diego Polo as they had a wild party and a great band to finish the perfect day of a 100 years of Polo. Back east its Adolfo Cambiaso taking more gold south as he and M and M like Matias in Magrini won another big one . . . The Gold Cup for Russ and his New Bridge squad. They have had a very nice year winning 2 of 3 high goal tournaments they played in. You can have a look at it on your TV at home Oct. 22 I hear. It will be aired on ESPN 2 as part of the Triple Crown of Polo Series. Its not all over yet as the Chicks with Sticks show up this week in San Diego from all over the globe as the ladies hit the field come Friday afternoon. Oh yes get ready to party some more. They do have a very good time. So come on down to SDPC.
Photo Captions:
14-Goal Champs Madison Square from left to right: Whitney Crowder, Jason Crowder, Lisa Bosstick, Mariano Fassetta and Nicolai Galindo.
14-Goal Runners Up Tritech. Photo – from left to right: Joseph Stuart, Mariano Gutierrez, Dina Stuart, Laura Maloney, Chris Maloney, Gaston Von Wernich and tournament sponsor Brian Stokes.
Suzanne Figi presents carrots to Best Playing Pony named Commit owned by Steve Crowder and played by Mariano Fassetta.
6-Goal Champs Marcus + Millichap from left to right: Miguel Torres, Jr., Santi Torres, Miguel Torres, Sr., Abby Riggs, Bill Hoyman and friends.
The Polo Report by Steve Crowder
Click here to view more photos from the Spreckels Cup Semi finals and finals.