The Ball is in Play and the games are under Way
The Club Starts off its 97th year of Polo here in Carpinteria
Lisle Nixon Memorial is the first 12 Goal Tournament of the year.
Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club Opens their 2008 season with a huge mothers day brunch and 12 goal polo matches. All the women at the club received a rose to mark the occasion as hundreds of loyal polo fans showed up for the first day that the Polo Clubhouse was open, and enjoyed two fine and really close Matches. Piocho/Klentner Ranches Defeated Gehache 9-8 on two 6th Chukkar goals by Julio Gracida after the team was down by one goal in the start of the Chukkar. Juluio was high scorer for the game with 6 goals as he led his team to victory. In the second game of the afternoon, Long Beach/Antelope defeated Windsor Capital 12-11. Windsor was able to come back in the last Chukkar, but a goal by Santiago Trotz gave LB/Ant a two goal lead in the final period to secure the win.
Needless to say the fields at SB are in perfect tournament shape, and are a joy for the players. As one spectator commented to me “these fields are better than the greens at my local golf course”. All the teams in the 12 goal series voted to use the “4 red flag rule” on a tournament by tournament basis. This rule is explained in detail on the USPA web site under the heading of new rules.
Santa Barbara will also have a spectacular 20 Goal season as no less than 8 Teams are entered in the prestigious Bombardier Pacific Coast Open, but more on that subject later.