The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
It is now official. It will be Restoration Hardware, led by Ben Solemani, taking on Dan Walker and Farmers and Merchants 1. It is easy to say this will be a WAR. You now have 3 players around 30 and a hard-running Patron named Ben. They are taking on a team that beat them once in overtime. Farmer’s & Merchants, Dan Walker, is over 40 and Lucas Criado the same, but both have been there and done that. They have 2 amazing young guns. Joquein Panelo, who is really playing well and Herndon Radcliffe, a secret weapon. I think he may be the best for his handicap in the tournament @ 2 goals. It will be fun no matter what so see you there.
Today in game 1, both teams needed to win to have a chance for a shootout and it turned into a one way street. Klentner Ranch did a tap dance on Lucchese and got them in position for a chance to get to the shoot out.
Game 2 was a big one as SD Farms, led by Mr Dantata and super stick Alan Martinez, had to have a win to ruin Restoration Hardware’s chances. They tried, but never made it happen. Alan Martinez and Mr. Dantata played very well, but lacked the finish as RH kept it rolling and headed to 2 _ 1 .
Game 3 was the leveler. If F and M 2 should win, it was a 4-way shoot out. If they did not, RH was in. It started tough with FM1 behind by quite a bit, but there were some amazing plays by Herndon and Jaquien along with Lucas never stopping to talk and doing his job so well. These two with DW doing his job deleted a possible shoot out. So they head to a finals with big Ben and the sheep herders, but they will be without Captain Snow as the Snowman is packing some extra bone material in his ribs. However, Santi is playing Snow’s horses and is already good anyway,so do not count RH out. Even though Herndon and Jauquien are playing as good as Lucas is screaming and DW is playing amazing, I would say the hot and lucky team will win.
It will save face, I like several of these players for their effort for US POLO. DW normally supports U.S. Players and is now a bit weaker, but he has Herndon and there is a reason he is playing awesome. Ben is a supporter of US Polo and one of the biggest in the West. He always hires a US Player and Jason and Coti fit this, so I think it shows we do still play the game in the USA. Now if the USPA would understand the first 4 letters of their name, which is U.S. not united, maybe we could turn this around. A simple look here in Santa Barbara, we have 6 teams. A patron is considered American … Lucchese has 3, Farmer’s & Merchants 1 has two and one of the best 2-goalers in the nation Herndon R. Henry has 1 and a patron. Klentner Ranch has 2, SD Farms has 3 with a Patron. It is a fact, we have very little polo in the USA making polo for the USA Polo players. Maybe that is why we have less Patrons every year?
The USPA, our bankers, have done a good job on new players, but the problem is so obvious. When you leave a program at 2-goals, as most do, where do they go?? There are no jobs and they have no money for horses. This happens because these players are unprotected and will never get a job because they have no horses and no job to buy horses. WHAT DOES THIS DO? Nothing. It prolongs frustration and they have to get out of this world and they do.
EVERT YEAR I HEAR WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE. WELL THAT HAS BEEN 20 + YEARS. ENGLAND HAS GONE FROM 12 PLAYERS FROM 4 TO 7 GOALS TO 65 PLAYERS . THE US HAS GONE FROM 77 TO 13 @ 6 AND ABOVE. TELL ME WE ARE BUILDING POLO? 805 896 4406
I would just like to hear your side of the story and your opinions because I know a bunch of the kids who finished the program and are well looking for another career. Is this what the leaders envisioned back then?
see ya