The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
Mother Nature stepped into the mix on both coasts and even visited the North East, but there was no Polo there. Florida had a little mini-winter day on Sunday. It may have been the one that went through Indio, CA on Friday as it was darn right nasty for a while Friday PM. On Sat. morning it was just amazing with a little white up high as the snow came a little lower on the hills. Sunday was a magical day with huge crowds at Empire on both sides and Eldoraod had a big crowd on the west side slope for a finals as well. While polo may be a little low, the crowds are definitely up as it was a perfect day for polo.
Over at Eldo it was “The Bones” (Ron Bonaguidi) and Fast-etta (Mariano Fassetta) showing the W’s what it is like to deal with pure speed. Bones has some runnin’ – gunnin’ speed balls in front of him as Joesy (Joseph Stuart) and Jared Sheldon were a little too quick for the W’s of Mansour, who were without their leader “Bullet Ben” Solemani, who has a wing down at the moment. They capture their second round of Silver this Winter.
Josey had a big day beating the clock by 30 seconds to get a big win over at Empire in the Noon game with Mrs. Cobb of Coldwell Banker. Coldwell Banker is getting used to the trophy stand as she and her daughter Madelyn made Dad proud by taking the Jan. league home to the Bay area as they narrowly escaped a very hard-riding and determined Carol Lessine. Lessine is one heck of a minus 1 anywhere. There are some very good -1’s coming out of the LA area Emma, Torey and Carole all seem very good and born to run.
Casa Sombres is also looking good over in the 4-goal league at Empire. They move to the upper bracket now with a big run as the Wolfman (Ashton Wolf) kept his game in high gear with Conrad Kissling doing a lot of scoring. Another up and coming gun from the North West is Shane Flock. The Northwest is showing they have some minus 1’s about to deal and with Los Angeles. Then if you add a little Casper, a true German player who will leave town soon, but left his mark in the Coachella Valley.
I will have the brackets soon as we get them with 10 teams they will be a split section with part moving up and others shifting to another bracket.
The first 8 Goal Finals of the month @ Empire had the Doctor and TRINITY, his band of bully’s taking on Eric Hammond and AH #4 in the finals. Dr. Rick Paicus and their Captain, led the way shooting 5 goals to ensure his trip to the table in front of a huge crowd and Trinity after trailing by 3 were just too much for Alex Haagen IV and the boys for the next 5 chukkars and no matter what it takes 6 to win most games.
Down South was the 20-goal and in the middle they are having a shootout about right now with Audi, Lucchese and Lechuza all tied to see who wins bracket 4 so they can finish the quarter finals draw. I am a little slow publishing, so it is done obviously on Monday night, so that way it is a big quarter with :
Zacara taking on Coke
ERG dueling with Lechuza
Audi dealing with Villa Lago
Piaget deals with Lucchese
Polo in Palm Beach is hot, but they do not have the crowds like Empire and that is why Nacho Figueras, who is easily THE FACE OF POLO, is coming here soon … like on March 23rd. It may well be the biggest spectator game in POLO since NY in the 20’s as we expect close to 10,000 spectators. It will be rockin’ and that crowd will fit they deal with a 100 grand during Cocahella so set your calendar for March 23 to be at Empire Polo Club. There will be nowhere else to be on that date.