The 2009 Santa Barbara 8-goal polo league continues as Piocho remains undefeated this season. Will Rodgers PC team smoked the locals all on a very nice Memorial Day weekend. Friday it was “a come from behind” game as both Piocho and La Kirina were down and then came roaring back to go to the victory table. Piocho was down by 5 at one time and 4 at the half. They came back and obliterated that lead in the 4th and 5th to gallop off with the win over Antelope. It was La Kirina without Brian Boyd, who was a victim of high-end horses that do not always like to stick and ball. Boyd missed the weekend of polo because he was going to change her mind, but Parker Flannery found it doable as he had no problem subbing for Boyd in the games. Flannery did well as he helped La Katrina get by Long Beach on Sat. Then it went to interclub where Will Rodgers came up to the SBPC and did a massacre on the locals. There was a guy with initials A.B. who we all thought it was A.C. the way he ripped down the field. AC stands for Adolfo Cambiaso. Can guess who AB it is? Not Andy Busch, but someone else. This team was not winning by a fluke on Saturday, they won on Sat. and they were even better on Sunday. They may not be invited back! Leigh Brecheen , Andrew Bossom and Bolko Kissling with old one-eye Domingo Questel where the winning team from Will Rodgers. They just thrashed the home team.
Sunday started with a big boom as the Space shuttle, which was seldom read about after all their heroes (not Paris Hilton or Michael or Madonna) returned from a very big trip. They were reconfiguring the Hubble which should be good for another 5 now . Hats off to them. That takes a lot of courage to walk in space with objects flying at speeds unknown on Earth at them and just a hose for safety.
After Will Rodgers got done with Santa Barbara PC it was time for the 1 pm, which I have to say showed one of the classiest moments I have seen in Polo for a while. It was La Katrina minus B. Boyd playing Antelope. La Katrina led most of the way, but in the 5th Antelope started to come alive and were down by 2 early. They made a run on some big shots by Geoff Palmer and the Governor (Pat Nesbitt) and the game was then tied. On a big run by Palmer and the Palomino (Jason Crowder) it was a sideboard incident where a horse got on the boards and Jason asked for a time out as something did not seem right with his mare, which is normal to protect a horse. The request by Jason was disallowed by the umpires and instead of continuing on, the high-goal pro of La Katrina said to Jason “change the horse.” Then the pro rode off the field to get a fresh one himself, even though it was to his advantage to have no timeout. Whether it was his thought of the horse or sportsmanship, it was a very classy thing to do. His Name is SANTIAGO WULFF. He is a sportsman and most of all a Gentleman. Hats off to him. Antelope did in the end get a narrow victory by one and they go to 1 & 1. In the featured game it was the Lawman and Deputy Barrack doing the damage as Piocho continued to roll on their undefeated trail through the season. They go to 2 & 0 and have a place in the finals barring a miracle. Action continues on Sat. right here in Carpinteria, home of the SBPC. So be there if you can.
Across the Pond action is at full speed as The Queen’s Cup, the England’s second most important tournament. The Queen’s Cup is now into its second week with some very big surprises as some of the best teams have been having their problems. Loro Piana and Le Lions are having trouble reaching the WIN side of things. Only 1 North American is involved . . . young Fred Mannix is active there. There is also a rumor he got engaged over there. This may break a few hearts. Nick Roldan went as a substitute for Cambiaso, who is sidelined with a injury. I guess that’s two now, but he came out in second place as local flavor Zacara did him no favors as he lost in o.t. to the Z’s. Polo is also underway in the Party Club in San Diego where the Turf meets the Surf. So if close by stop and have a very good time .
see you @ POLO