The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder

It was a great day for polo, just a bad day to be there. ERG destroyed F and M in the finals of the USPA America’s Cup. After playing very well on Fri. to make the finals, F&M did just the opposite today. It was a good crowd or maybe even a great crowd after last weeks no shows. It was definitely a Merlos, Merlos show and add a young American named Muller and that was it. It was never close from # 1 to #4 as ERG produced goals like it was a lighting storm and it probably was for F&M … they heard the thunder. It was raining on them so that was the finals. It will get better than a 10-goal spread in the future. Remy Muller, a young Gun from U.S.,  showed a lot of composure and made many good plays on both sides of the ball. The Merlo’s Brothers seemed way over mounted as they constantly opened up big spreads between them and their defenders. Both of these men were 10-goals for many years and it was obvious they have not lost much of it … horses or talent.

In the 8-goal it is a close one.  The winner is ?    DARK HORSE PATRONS Sara Rotman and Paige Beard in overtime.

I am not sure what we are doing wrong, but I have had a lot of opinions submitted. I have posted some of them in several articles, but there really can not be any better place to play polo than California.  The weather is awesome for polo in July and August … better than anywhere else in the world, yet we have 3 very likley Patrons going all the way to Soto grande, Spain to play.  Mansour, Valiente and Lechuza are there.  WHY?  We are located on the best place on the planet to play summer polo and we cannot get out of the box. This has to be our leaders and I am thinking there must be a change. The survey says lower to 16-gaol and at first I agreed, but after talking to people who know this may not be the best idea. If we want good polo here and that maybe the answer, we do not care if that is the answer so be it .

Some say we did it in the 90’s in hard times and it came back.   It did, but are these hard times? From 2008 to 2012 we had from 6 to 8 high-goal teams. Those were hard times. We have lost a lot of Patrons due to age and desire like G. Palmer, M.Haken , P. Nesbitt. Tom Barrack, A. Busch, B. Fell and many visitors.  The Ganzi’s, George Rawlins, John Goodman and people last year not old or without desire like S. Devon, Bill Guillermo Steta” from Mexico, Bob J. from Colorado, Ben S. from LA, Lyndon Lea  are not playing here. WHY ??

We need to fix it and we need our leaders to step Up NOW. I do not think it is the money. It cost a fortune everywhere else.  In the UK the cost is double.  In Sotogrande it is the same. They have 12 to 16 teams in their 20-goal leagues.

Lets hire professionals to do it and one polo person who stands out in my mind is Adam Snow. I doubt he would do it, but I think he could, but only if he is in control not a messenger .

It does not have to be a polo person.  Same as baseball or sailing it needs to be a LEADER.

PS: This is a sad day in S.B. history.   11 years ago today Eric Friden was fatally injured here playing Polo.

I love Santa Barbara because of what it is and the SB Polo club in Carpinteria, Ca. is in TROUBLE.

see ya