Brandon Phillips, Martin Pepa and Nic Roldan will be traveling to Mexico City this coming weekend to compete against a Mexican polo team that will include Polo Hall of Famers Carlos and Memo Gracida. Joining them will be the president of the Mexican Polo Federation, Guillermo Steta.
Billed as Mexico vs. “the Rest of the World”, Phillips, Roldan, Pepa and Steta will face Carlos and Memo Gracida, Valerio Aguilar and Alvaro Fernandez. The two Gracidas and Fernandez competed this past season as La Herradura in 20-goal competition at the International Polo Club. Martin Pepa has competed at IPC over the years with Black Watch, Circa and a number of other teams. For the last few years Brandon Phillips and Nic Roldan have been promoted by the media as a couple of the more popular faces of polo at the International Polo Club while Steta has competed in medium goal competition at IPC the last few years.
The match will take place at Campo Marte, the historic military polo ground in the heart of Mexico City and is expected to attract a crowd of over 10,000.
The sport of polo has deep roots in Mexican sports history as Mexico began playing polo internationally by the early 20th century, even hosting the World Polo Championship games in 2008. Mexican businessman Manuel Escandon-Barron was credited with bringing the game back to Mexico after watching the game being played in the United States in the late 19th century. Mexico fielded a polo team in the 1900 Olympics, the first time polo appeared in the Olympic Games, and finished in 3rd place in the 1936 Olympics, behind Argentina and England.
Under the patronage of General Camacho, the four Gracida brothers (Gabriel, Guillermo, Alejandro and Jose) represented Mexico in international competition on the polo scene, even managing to capture the United States Open championship in 1946.
World-class players emerged from Mexico in Antonio Herrera, the Bermudez brothers and the Gracida off-springs.
In the late 1970s the United States “hijacked” top Mexican players Memo and Carlos Gracida, both of whom became a central part of the American polo scene for nearly four decades. Memo Gracida holds the record for most number of US Open Championships won with 16. Carlos is in second place with 9 US Open wins but holds the record in England with 10 British Open Championships to his credit. Their cousin Ruben Gracida made his way to Florida where he competed at the highest-level, attaining an 8-goal handicap and won a couple of US Opens as well.
“Polo has an historically strong fan base here,” said Guillermo Steta, “a base that includes several former presidents.”
The Camacho Cup, honoring Mexico’s polo-loving president, General Manuel Avila Camacho, was inaugurated in 1941 in Mexico City. Although first dominated by the United States with wins in 1941, 1946, 1974 and 1976, Mexico has held the cup since 1981, with wins in 1981, 1988 and 2009.
It is not surprising that once an influential Mexican businessman, Manuel Escandon-Barron, saw the game of polo played during a visit to the United States in the late 19th century that he would initiate games with his friends. Attracted to the fast-paced play that requires a superior horse and riding skill, Mexicans embraced the fledgling sport. By 1881 the first polo club, Jockey Club Mexicano, was started; presently there are six professional polo clubs in the country.