Sunday, May 17th at Grand Champions Polo Club
Miguel Novillo Astrada Named MVP
Travieso became the first polo team to win two tournaments during the spring season at windswept Grand Champions Polo Club on Sunday in front of a worldwide Chukker TV audience.
In the first game of a tripleheader, Travieso (Teo Calle, Marc Ganzi, Miguel Novillo Astrada, Hector Guerrero) held off a late rally by Palm Beach Equine (Martin Estrada, Roberto Gonzalez, Facundo Obregon, Scott Swerdlin) to capture the Polo Gear Challenge Cup with a thrilling 11-10 victory.
Travieso’s Teo Calle and MVP Miguel Novillo Astrada with awards presenter Wendy Calle. Photo by Alex Pacheco
Argentine 10-goaler Miguel Novillo Astrada was named Most Valuable Player. His fifth-chukker horse, Magnolia, owned and ridden by Astrada, was named Best Playing Pony.
It was the second tournament Travieso has won this season. Travieso also won the USPA Spring Challenge with father and son Teo and Tony Calle and brothers Carlucho and Julio Arellano with a 14-7 win over FlexJet for its first-ever 16-goal victory.
Travieso is the first team to win two tournaments during the club’s most competitive season since 2008.
In a close game full of big plays, there were three in the final two minutes that clinched the win for Travieso.
At the 1:52 mark, Calle broke free and was open when he took a pass from Astrada to break a 10-10 tie.
After Gonzalez’ amazing near-side neck shot stopped just short of the goal line, Astrada got a piece of the throw-in which Swerdlin had won, backed it to Calle, who ended Palm Beach Equine’s rally by knocking it out of play to end the game.
“Can you believe that? Some days are better than others,” Calle said with a smile. “This happened to be a good day today. It was our day. We got lucky.
“The team is incredible,” Calle said. “Miguel is a 10-goaler in Argentina and 9-goaler here and an excellent player. He basically teaches you everything you want on the field and it’s great. Hector is a solid fighter and Marc and myself with two of the lower handicaps we did all right.”
The finish couldn’t have been more exciting, Calle said.
“Miguel got a piece of it and I saw the ball next to me so I just started taking it away from the goal. They screamed to me to hit it when I was close to the boards so I did.
MVP Miguel Novillo Astrada of Travieso works the ball away from defender Roberto Gonzalez of Palm Beach Equine.
Photo by Alex Pacheco
“I was thinking I really didn’t want to miss this ball,” Calle said. “I want to have it next to me until time runs out and I don’t want to foul. Sometimes ten seconds can be a very long time.”
Travieso is expected to compete in this weekend’s The Memorial Tournament at Grand Champions.
“Winning the most prestigious tournament is very nice but the job that Melissa and Marc are doing here is unbelievable,” Calle said. “I am so impressed with all of this. It is the first year I have played here during the spring season. It’s beautiful. You feel welcomed and the club is nice.”
Astrada scored a team-high four goals. Ganzi had three goals. Calle and Guerrero each had two goals.
Astrada was just as thrilled with the victory as Calle.
“I tried to stay calm,” Astrada said. “I tried to look at the ball and read the play as fast as I could because there was only one chance. I was lucky to recover the ball and make the right back shot to Teo for him to get the ball. At that time you only try to really focus on being quick.”
Travieso dominated the first half and built an 8-5 halftime lead behind Astrada’s four goals. Palm Beach Equine rallied in the second half to come within one in the fifth chukker (9-8) and tied it in the sixth chukker (10-10) on Obregon’s 30-yard penalty shot.
“It was a good game, it was very close,” Astrada said. “We did very well in the first half. We knew they were going to come hard in the second half and they did. The last chukker was very tight. We were able to play a little better than them.”
Obregon scored a game-high six goals. Estrada added two and Gonzalez had one.
Altair/Postage Stamp Farm (Annabelle Gundlach, Ashley Van Metre, Brandon Phillips, Carlitos Gracida) won the 8-Goal Chukker TV Cup with an 8-7 victory over Polo Gear (Riley Ganzi/Santos Bollini, Hector Guerrero, Alejandro Poma, Charlie Armstrong).
Winning 8-Goal Chukker TV Trophy Cup team: MVP Brandon Phillips, Carlitos Gracida, Ashley Van Metre, Annabelle Gundlach. Photo by Alex Pacheco
Brandon Phillips won his second Most Valuable Player honor of the spring season. Phillips led scoring with five goals. Gracida’s 6-year-old dark bay mare, Estampa, was named Best Playing Pony.
In the Polo Gear Challenge Cup subsidiary round robin game, Polo Gear (Grant Ganzi, Juancito Bollini, Wes Finlayson, Piki Diaz Alberdi) won with victories over Dutta Corp (Timmy Dutta, Guille Aguero, Lucas Lalor, Felipe Viana) and Melody Capital Polo Team (Melissa Ganzi, Kris Kampsen, Nic Roldan, Cesar Gueikian).
Throughout the day, family, friends, players and fans were treated to breakfast, lunch and asado from hosts Marc and Melissa Ganzi and Grand Champions.
Travieso once again joins Casablanca (Grant Ganzi, Juancito Bollini, Wes Finlayson, Nic Roldan), Palm Beach Equine (Scott Swerdlin, Facundo Obregon, Brandon Phillips, Martin Estrada), Travieso (Tony Calle, Carlucho Arellano, Julio Arellano, Teo Calle) and Psycho Bunny (Piki Diaz Alberdi, Brandon Phillips, Andrew Seibert, Kris Kampsen) as the first five tournament champions.
The remaining spring tournaments at Grand Champions are this weekend’s much-anticipated The Memorial, May 24-25 USPA NYTS and May 28-31, Santa Rita Memorial.
One of the biggest highlights of the spring season has been the use of state-of-the-art technology featuring live streaming, instant replay, challenges and team review from Chukker.TV, which during Sunday’s tripleheader unveiled its’ new-and-improved interactive website.
In January, 2014, Grand Champions Polo Club became the first polo club worldwide to offer instant replay and team review much to the delight of players and patrons in hopes of improving officiating and quality of play at all levels of polo.
Chukker.TV is providing unduplicated state-of-the-art technology to provide instant replay.
Chukker.TV also partnered with Roku, Inc. to bring polo to fans live in the comfort of their homes at no cost. Chukker.TV has a channel on Roku.
Grand Champions, with its five well-manicured fields and turnkey facility, is enjoying its finest spring season in the history of the club, which opened in 2008. Everyone is welcome to enjoy the games. Admission is free.
2015 POLO ON DEMAND
Grand Champions Polo Club, featuring five world-class fields, has a full schedule of tournaments from January to May. Let our polo experts create a turn-key experience including top pros to bring out the best in you and your team. Lessons are available.
2015 SPRING SCHEDULE
May 21-25, The Memorial; May 23, The Polo School League Challenge, 10 a.m.; May 24-25, USPA NYTS; May 28-31, Santa Rita Memorial.
GRAND CHAMPIONS POLO CLUB
WHERE: 13444 Southfields Road, on the corner of South Shore Boulevard and Lake Worth Road, Wellington, 33414.