By Wiley Uretz
Today at the Santa Barbara Polo Racquet club we had the kick off to the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open. This start was a little different than previous years since due to scheduling issues we did not have the normal teams play in games that counted towards winning the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open Trophy. But by doing this it allowed us to have two very exciting and entertaining games, one of which was the highest rated game played at SBPRC in over 20 years. Having this high goal match as one of the kick off matches for the Bombardier PCO was also very significant since the PCO was first developed in order to draw the highest caliber players from around the West Coast and this match was able to serve as a testament to how that mission has been achieved and expanded upon.
In the first match we had two 7-10 goal teams who consisted of one Pro and three Patrons (sponsors who pay for the team and play) who all generously allowed their pros and/or horses to play in the 3pm game which made having an all pro 30 goal game possible. In this game Bombardier: Scott Wood, Lyndon Lea, Henry Walker and Mike Azzaro, faced off against Global: Ben Soleimani, Dawn Jones, Justin Klentner and Santiago Van Wernich. Although this was not a high goal match it was still obvious that all of the players on the field play high goal polo regularly and can make very good plays when given the opportunity. In the first three chukkers Bomabrdier was able to jump out to a quick lead and hold on to it thanks to three goals off the mallet of Lyndon Lea. Going into the second half the score was 4-3 in favor of Bombardier, but Global showed no signs of laying down and after a nice goal off the mallet of Dawn Jones they were able to even it up going into the fifth chukker. However Bombardier came out in the last two chukkers determined to end on top and after a 3 goal fifth chukker they were able to fend off the Global comeback in the last chukker to win the game by a score of 8-6.
Then in the 3pm game we had two thirty goal teams battle it out in one of the highest rated matches in the entire nation this year. The teams that took the field for this high goal match were LearJet: Sugar Erskine, Hillario Ulloa, Adam Snow and Mike Azzaro against Challenger: Pablo Spinacci, Lucas Criado, Paco De Narvaez and Luis Escobar. This game was a story of two very different halves of play. In the first half Challenger was on fire and was able to fly out to a 7 to 1 lead thanks to great penalty shooting from Luis Escobar. Then in the second half just as everyone was ready to head for the exits LearJet turned it on, out scoring Challenger 6-2 and forming a formidable comeback thanks to 5 goals from Hillario Ulloa. However unfortunately for LearJet and all of the fans cheering them on the clock ran out on their comeback and they lost by a score of 7-9. The most valuable player of this all pro match was Challenger’s Luis Escobar. All and all it was a great opening weekend for the Bombardier Pacific Coast Open and we hope that everyone can come out and enjoy the world class polo that will be played as the tournament picks up.