In San Diego its a dandy shaping up in the high-goal as its the last one before a VERY Wild September starts. It will be Ms. Figi and Long and Sexy Shelley Geiler taking on the Pope as in Ed Pope. Ed has the Sec. Of Defense from Mexico (Fernando Pliego) and both have some guns with them. Its the Surfer (Diego Cossio) and Mr. Guti (Mariano Gutierrez) with the ladies (Shelley and Suzanne) forming the Gypsy Squad. Its smoke from the south with Aspen Oaks called Obregon and the Uruguay Star called Juan Curbelo. They are ready to roll. Its all set and in the middle of it all is the unveilling of the new Maseratii or Ferrari or maybe both, but some car we normally only see, but never touch. Its for the Fernando Guiterrez Cup, one of the finest men to ever play this sport and he was a fun man on and off the field. He will be well represented with his darling widow and Fernando the 3rd who is also playing polo. Its an appetizer for whats coming as the Rancho Valencia Cup starts in one week. It will be party time and the best of the West in Sept. Only six teams allowed in the high goal and 8 in the 4- to 6-goal. They will be playing for nothing but gold.
Up north in Santa Barbara its the finals of the biggest tournament west of Texas. Its called the PACFIC COAST OPEN and there are two hungry teams looking for the big silver from Bombardier and the Triple Crown. Hey, its got to be big its on ESPN so shine your shoes, comb your hair and be there! Its ZACARA from out of town, but with their own pile of stars.They play the local favorites PIOCHO RANCH. These cowboys come to town to play polo for one reason only …SILVER.
A look at the teams and who might play as Piocho does have some injuries, but they are here anyway by crushing most opponents.
FOR ZACARA IT WILL BE:
# 1 Lyndon Lee the patron and captain. He is new to CA, about 3 years new and he is hungry. He has been here twice to the semis, but he is in this year and he does not want to leave without it. Tere is little doubt about it.
# 2 Jack Ruki Balieu is a driven man and he likes to go fast. Some more control would be
nice, but that is not Ruki. After all he is an Aussie. Have you ever see a kangaroo? Hey just do it period.
# 3 Nick Roldan 24-years old and the best of North America player. He is sometimes an unguided missle, but he is coming. Nick hits it hard and sometimes straight. There is no bigger hitter on this planet and yes that includes Argentina. I call him “Nick the Stick” and you shall see why.
# 4 Brandon Phillips the warrior. He is a little quiet, but he has a lot of savy. His brother trains very fast racehorses and Brandon spends a lot of time running as he is with 3 veryfast teammates and they love to run and do when they play polo.
FROM THE RANCH TO THE POLO FIELD . . . Piocho Ranch
THE LINEUP WE DO NOT KNOW, BUT IT WILL BE 4 OF THESE 6 AND 2 WILL BE GRACIDAS.
# 1 TJ Barrack if he plays he will be #1 and he has the bad luck of not losing a game this
year. He is young to the game and he is a motivated young man.
# 2 Kris Kampsen he will be the #2 no matter what. He is often called the “Big Bird” as he can reach so far and he has red hair. Kris also is the most underated player here and will be a problem for Zacara all day long as he has been for everyone else all summer long.
# 3 Carlos Gracida? Maybe. He just flew in to take his brother Memos place. He scored about 8 goals on Thursday to put them here in the finals. He has so many Gold Cups from England they want to buy them back for the trophies the next 4 years.
# 3 Memo Gracida is the Legend. He is not out for sure from his injury. He was not moving to bad on Thursday. So we could see him back in the saddle come Sunday. Nobody knows and thats the way he wants it.
# 4 Tom Barrack? If Memo plays he will as he is immune to pain. They told him 10 years ago to quit polo. He did as he had to work for 3 months on a new project where they had no polo. He is a defensive specialist and he will take out anyone. If he gets to them they are out of it. Thats just the way he is. Tom is the Patron of this team or just simply the BOSS.
# 4 Julio Gracida plays if Memo does not play. He would be # 1 if he does. He is about 20 years 1/2 way to perfect and he is Memo and Mimi Gracida’s son. He knows the game and he does play team polo for 7 minutes every chukkar whether at #1 or at # 4 he will be seen.
UPDATE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KNOW:
Sat. 25th at 1 p.m. is the Western Badge (third place game) on field 1 at Santa Barbara the Linfoot Memorial where there are a whole bunch of youngsters which starts a t 9 a.m.
Sunday, 26th are the finals only at 2 p.m. First time with a fresh field ever. It should be SO GOOD.
See ya at the finals North Or South they will be a very nice time.