The 5th Annual Arte Careyes Film and Art Festival closed out the polo 2015/2016 season for the Careyes Polo Club. Films, both short and feature length, were shown in the under the stars movie theatre in a week-long event. Films from Mexico, Spain, USA, Bosnia, Argentina, France and Colombia were shown in the Plaza Caballeros del Sol every afternoon and night for the guests. John Cooper, chairman of the Sundance Film Festival, and Diego Luna, a Mexican artist, were the honored guests. GNP, the largest insurance company in Mexico, Mercedes Benz, Aeromexico, and Makken, a special events supplier, were the title sponsors for each of the teams.
In the first game, Makken (Fortaleza) fought against Aeromexico. Raul Ramirez with teammates Erick Cornejo, Manuel Rios and George Sandu of team Makken scored in the last few seconds to beat Aeromexico – the family team of Chris, Will and KC Falk and Hans Giebeler – by 7-6.5. Scorers for team Makken were Raul Ramirez with 4 goals, Cornejo with 1 goal and Rios with 2 goals. For the Aeromexico team Chris Falk scored 3 goals, Will Falk 2 goals and Giebeler 1 goal.
The GNP (Agua Alta) of Alberico Ardissone, Manuel Matos Gil, Diego Gonzalez and Maxime Moellhausen played against the Mercedes Benz team of Giorgio Brignone, Luis Perez and Vicente Gutierrez. The GNP team had played almost all season together and was too much for the Mercedes team. Ardissone scored 6 goals for the winning team.
On the finals day, Mercedes played against Aeromexico in the subsidiary match. Aeromexico – including the Falk family – came into play and beat the Mercedes Benz team by 7-2. Leading scorer for Aeromexico was Chris Falk with 4 goals – collegiate player and teammate KC Falk scored 1 goal and contributed two perfect assists for her uncle, Chris, and father, Will. For the Mercedes team Luis Perez was leading the scoreboard with 2 goals.
The GNP was favoured over the Makken team as they had won handily the day before. However, Raul Ramirez captained the team with great back shots and was 100% on the foul line. Each chukka ended in a tie. The 4th chukka with GNP making 3 quick goals looked like they were on the trophy stand. A couple of costly fouls by the GNP team and an end to end goal by Ramirez tied the score with just seconds left looking like a shootout might end the game. Ball thrown in – Makken team heads toward goal with Cornejo and Rios on defence and Sandhu putting 2 shots towards the goal. Ramirez, on offense, putting it through the uprights – the final bell sounding as the teams gallop back to centre. Final score: 8-7. Top scorers for the teams were Ardissone with 6 goals for team GNP and Ramirez with 7 goals for team Makken.
The Careyes Polo Club will kick off the next season with a tournament during the Thanksgiving Week in November. The Club has 2 irrigated fields, barns for more than 250 horses during high season, riding trails through the jungle and to the Teopa beach. The club is considered the best in Mexico for the quality of its tournaments. Careyes has 11 tournament scheduled throughout the year ending in April 2017. Its organization, the beautiful setting of the fields and the incredible climate where one can bathe in the 78 degrees Fahrenheit (25,5 degrees Celsius) ocean during the day and wear a sweater at night, make Careyes a one of a kind polo experience.
Please contact Giorgio Brignone (giorgiobrignone@yahoo.com.mx) or Susan Stovall (susanstovall@careyes.com.mx) for any information for the coming events.
www.careyes.com