Polo is suffering in many places, but not this year in Palm Beach. At IPC (International Polo Club) it is anything but bad. A decline may be around the corner though. Like oil prices are ruining so many things and lives. Greed may be close behind in Polo. Polo is a hobby for the people who pay us. Hobbies like cars can be replaced by other hobbies, diversions or transport. People are talking some very big numbers and they could be shooting themselves in the foot. There is no doubt its much more expensive to be in the sport today, than it was years ago. The cost of raising a horse, making it and selling it, is probably close to $30,000, yet people want to pay $15,000. Now you know why there are few trainers in the country! Today, good horses like good anything cost more as they should, but we have to have to draw a line on the limits. If all horses were paid for with decent prices, there would be fewer bad horses and great horses would be cheaper because they would be less of a difference in quality. But thats not the way the world turns. It costs the same to feed either the good or the bad horse, so somebody always passes it off onto someone else and on and on. This creates the difference to the point where a great horse is $200,000, a good horse is $30,000 to $100,000 and then there are the bottom feeders from $4,500 to $15,000 grand.
The moment of truth was there to see Sunday April 20,2008 in Wellington, FL. In many sports there are elite players and polo is the same. There is only one, yes one, real 10-goal player. There is still a big space between Adolfo Cambiaso and the others. He had a good team of hard-working, blue collar players and he played the team of brothers, who have been together for life and beat them. The rumor was they had no horses and that 1 player was a foot. Well he must have had four fast feet on Sunday as they dominated. They also had an easy route to the finals. Most were 26-goal teams. Sunday showed maybe there is really just one 26-goal team, the others are less. Over the last 4 weeks Crab Orchard beat Orchard Hill, Black Watch, Audi, Pony Express and then Las Monjitas. On these teams there were 3 other 10-goal players and only one team had a 6-goal player BW. All other teams were more balanced, but what makes this so interesting is that Cambiaso takes a patron named George Rawlins and uses him as a eliminator in the game. Not because George is a lighting bolt, but because he always knows where George is and he always takes out a player 7 or 8 goals higher-rated than himself. Thats a + 7 or 8. Then Cambiaso has the best 6-goaler in the world Jeff Blake always getting him the ball 6 or 7 times a game in the throw ins and always taking out a big stick another + 2 to 4 and guess what? He wins because he is very good and always uses his team and yet so many people will say he is solo and does not use the team. Watch the video and go back and see where he got the ball. It is that ability, like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, to see that spot and to know the field. So if Cambiaso is 10-goals and can do this, how are there 10 other 10-goal players in the World? All 6 teams they beat beat someone else to get there and thats the way it is. The truth, there are some teams who could be 26-goals, but none more and probably only 1 other and several should go down in their ratings in my opinion. This would keep the sport balanced if no other 10’s played here each team could be overated by from 1 to 3 probably. The team handicap changes my view.
From the top of the draw . . .
Skeeterville 24
Zacara 24
Isla Caroll 25
Bendabout 24
Black Watch 24
Audi 23
Orchard Hill 23
Crab Orchard 26
Las Mojintas 26
White Birch 25
Pony Express 25
LeChuza 23
Come back next year and see who will win as Adolfo Cambiaso and George are out of here. It may come another place to set your hat and wonder how good is he? Cambiaso is the best there is now for sure.
Polo has been good to many people including myself, but we can destroy it like a bomb. Its already being seperated in many ways from one group to another and with fragments are seperation and then dust. We know dust blows away and settles some where else and may never come back. The facts are there were 17 Americans in the U.S. Open this year, 9 were patrons and 4 were under 35. We need to think of how to be a part of our sport in our country and we need to do it now or let it blow away. That is the way I see it. See ya. – Steve Crowder