The draw for the 2016 Ylvisaker Cup took place at the 7th Chukker of the International Polo club Friday night in spite of the fact that play hadn’t been completed in the 20-goal Joe Barry Memorial Cup.
Heavy rains and sodden fields have caused a number of delays to the high-goal polo schedule this season, but future games and tournaments must be planned and Friday’s draw was just the natural progression.
Because the tournament semifinals have not yet been played, those four teams will be seeded after those games are played.
Argentine 8-goaler Lucas Criado draws for his Orchard Hill polo team. (Photo by Alex Pacheco)
Twelve teams took part in the four bracket partial draw that had Horseware/5 Star Builders (Matt Coppola, Hugo Lloret, Mike Azzaro and Brad Mallet) and Orchard Hill (Steve Van Andel, Polito Pieres, Peke Gonzalez and Lucas Criado) landing in Bracket I. Bracket II consisted of La Indiana (Michael Bickford, Joao Paulo Ganon, Ruki Baillieu and Tommy Collingwood) and Tonkawa (Jeff Hildebrand, Gonzalo Deltour, Sebastian Merlos and Mason Wroe). Coca-Cola (Gillian Johnston, Sugar Erskine, Julio Arellano and Steve Krueger) and Audi/Millarville (Grant Ganzi, Nic Roldan, Julian Mannix and Freddie Mannix) comprise Bracket III, with Bracket IV being initially composed of Valiente (Bob Jornayvaz, Adolfo Cambiaso, TBA and TBA) and White Birch (Tomas Alberdi, Ezequiel Ferrario, Mariano Aguerre and Peter Brant).
A third team will be added to each of the brackets with those teams coming from the Joe Barry Memorial Cup semifinalists: Dubai (Rashid Albwardy, Carlos Gracida, Diego Cavanagh and Alejo Taranco), Enigma (Jerome Wirth, Jeff Hall, Matias MacDonough and Carlucho Arellano), Palm Beach Illustrated (Nacho Badiola, Jared Zenni, Facundo Obregon and Jesse Bray) and Villa del Lago (Jim Zenni, Guille Aguero, Hilario Ulloa and Agustin Obregon).
Following the Joe Barry memorial Cup semifinals there will be a draw to determine whether the finalists will be in Brackets I and III or Bracket II and IV. Teams in Bracket I and II will play cross bracket as will teams in Bracket III and IV.
A tournament schedule will be finalized once the final leg of the draw is completed, weather has cleared and fields are available.