It was a great day for the fledgling Gay Polo League as over twenty players and emerging players took to the vast green expanses of the Grand Champion Polo Club’s fields in its first national polo tournament.
“We selected Wellington because we wanted people to know that we take our polo seriously,” said GPL president Chip McKenney, “and Wellington is as serious as you can get when it comes to polo.
Nearly twenty players traveled from across the country to take part in a weekend’s worth of competition and celebration culminating in Saturday’s 3 pm championship match between Equestrian Life (Tom Landry, Chip McKenney, Juan Bollini and Gordon Ross) and Bluehorse (Dwight Tran, Jimmy Linhart, Joey Casey and John Wigdahl), in which Equestrian Life rode off with the 4-3 win.
Each team took the field with a top professional high-goal player, but the pace of the game was set by the entire team.
Sharp passing and disciplined positioning brought the game up well above the level of play that might be indicated by the handicaps. Ride-offs, backhands and deliberation of purpose had the ball being carried up and down the manicured field as both teams struggled to break through the defenses of their oppositions.
Going into the final chukker of play, and trailing by a goal, the Equestrian Life team tied the game on a penalty shot by Bollini, and then came back to score the winning goal with less than a minute to play.
John Wigdahl, a member of the 1989 FIP World Championship USA polo team, was named tournament MVP while Plain Jane, a chestnut mare ridden by Chip McKenney was named Best Playing Pony.
A crowd of nearly 1,500 polo fans and Gay Polo League supporters were on hand for Saturday’s festivities that began with the tournament’s consolation match between the Step by Step Foundation team (Jean-Marc Herrouin, Lowell Gibbs, Jeff Blake and Greg Wildman)scoring a 5-4 win over Buchanan Screen, Rail & Windows (Talbot Logan, Jack Hoffmann, Nic Roldan and Dan Haynia).
Each team in the inaugural tournament was built around local Wellington professional players Nic Roldan (9), Jeff Blake (7), Juan Bollini (6) and Joey Casey (5) and mounted through the generous efforts of Marc and Melissa Ganzi.
The Gay Polo League states that their mission is “to provide the GLBT community with the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to participate in a unique sporting activity, promote participation in amateur competitions, as well as foster, develop, support and recognize sportsmanship, fellowship and goodwill among the members”.
The VIP tent was host to a number of celebrities that included former Congressman Mark Foley, six-time Olympic Dressage rider Robert Dover, Gale Brophy and a myriad of others while the west side of the field was lined with tailgate parties that ranged from casual to extreme.
“We just want to level the playing field,” offered Wigdahl after the awards ceremony, “we don’t want to be treated any better or any worse than anyone else. We just want to be accepted as equals.”
With trophy being awarded and champagne being popped, McKenney smiled and reflected on the success of the event.
“The level of polo that we played today was the best ever,” he offered. “Great horses, great fields and professional players that went out of their way to help us and make us feel comfortable.”
McKenney is looking at having the GPL return to Wellington next year for another tournament and a growing number of players and spectators.