The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
This Saturday, in the Kingdom of polo as in Buenos Aires, will Adolfo Cambiaso become even greater than he is now? There is a very good chance history will be made. Adolfo already ranks with two of the greatest players of the last decade, Juan Carlos Harriot and Gonzalo Pieres. They are already in every success story of polo, even without modern day press and media. Adolfo is in the new world. He has probably been the best for more than a decade. Adolfo could become the only polo player to ever to Capture 3 Triple Crowns in a row, by the end of day on Saturday. Somehow, this seems almost impossible in this era where everyone gets better. There are so many more objects than ever before to overcome the pressure of today’s money in polo. The modernization of the horse, equipment, training and professionalism, yet still he stays on top. How much longer can he go?
Polo has changed. When Juan Carlos Harriot was by far the best, there were probably a million people who knew who he was. When Gonzalo was at the top, in the 80’s and 90’s, less than 20 years ago maybe, 5 million people knew who he was. Juan Carlos Harriot will always be known as the man who changed polo from a sport of kings to the king of sports. He took away the amateur title of Argentina players. He made it great to be a Pro. Juan Carlos took the horse level to so much higher with Peter Brant and the Kerry Packer. With their backing, he changed the sport of polo to what it is today.
Polo is a sport and no matter what, it has a dozen different levels and this is the tough part because there are probably less than 50,000 players in the world and maybe 10,000who play a lot. Maybe a 1000 who play year around following the sun where grass grows and that means travel from South to North every year. That means professional players and of that 1000 less than 120 are 6-goals and above in any one year, most likely less.
Adolfo Cambiaso has stayed on top for a very long time while playing in the best polo in the world. And not just on one continent, but on all of them. It will be a big day on Sat. no doubt. There are 8 of the best players in this game. I think 7 of the 8 players are 10-goals and they have met before, so we shall see what happens on Saturday, Dec. 12th. No secrets, but lots of mystery.
As an old F–t, I hope he does it one more time. The young guys have the future to break his record. Watch it live … go to Pololin .com for time and direction.
Other news in polo .. trailers are in route to Florida and California from around North America and planes are headed North from BA to both. So join the fun and head to one of them. There will be no snow and lots of sun on winter days so why be Cold?
A winter Menu:
California :
EMPIRE POLO – FANTASTIC SETTING 8-GOAL POLO TO 0-GOAL
EL DORADO POLO – A GREAT PLACE TO BE 12-GOAL TO 2-GOAL
FLORIDA :
SARASOTA – ITS FLORIDA AND 12 GOAL TO PRO POOL
PALM CITY – YOU WILL NOT FIND BETTER FIELDS
GULFSTREAM – THE HEART OF POLO 12 TO 2 GOAL
PORT OF MAYACA – PERFECT BETWEEN THEM ALL 16 GOAL TO 4
GRAND CHAMPION – THE HEART OF PALM BEACH 16 TO 6 GOAL
IPC – THE KING OF IT ALL ‘ NO DOUBT ABOUT IT 20 TO 26 GOAL
MAKE your bucket list and spend some time. It may be the best time you ever had from 2 weeks to 4 months.
see ya