The Fourth of July may have passed but there are certain to be fireworks over the weekend with the return of American 8-goaler Nic Roldan and Argentine 9-goaler Agustin “Tincho” Merlos to the Aspen Valley Polo Club’s Basalt Handicap.
Tincho Merlos Nic Roldan just completed a season of high-goal polo in England where they carried their team to the finals of both the Cartier Queens Cup and the Gold Cup for the British Open.
Tincho Merlos will be playing with Travieso (Teo Calle, Grant Ganzi, Tincho Merlos and Juancito Bollini) in the tournament’s opening match, an 11am (MST) affair, against La Karina (Brian Boyd, Tony Calle, Julio Novillo Astrada and Stewart Armstrong) at the Sopris Mt. Ranch Field.
A 3pm (MST) round-robin featuring Tonkawa (Melissa Ganzi, Jeff Hildebrand, Nic Roldan and Jimmy Seward), Flexjet (Ale Poma, Marc Ganzi, Sebastian Merlos and Alex Gooding) and Los Amigos (Paul/Alejandra Foster, Gabriel Gracida, Lucas Lalor and Carlitos Gracida) is scheduled to take place at Jeff Hildebrand’s High Mesa Ranch polo field.
Tonkawa and Flexjet will play the first three chukkers of the round-robin with the Los Amigos lineup playing the last six chukkers.
The addition of Tincho Merlos and Nic Roldan will ramp up the speed of the competition as they join Tincho’s older brother, Sebastian Merlos (9), and Julio Novillo Astrada (8). The Los Amigos lineup welcomes back El Paso’s (TX) Paul and Alejandra Foster. Paul and Alejandra competed in last year’s Mount Sopris Cup and the season-ending Rocky Mountain Open Championship.
The final of the 2016 Basalt Handicap will take place at 11am (MST) at the Aspen Valley Polo club with a subsidiary final to follow at 1pm (MST).
All games will be livestreamed by ChukkerTV.
The Aspen Valley Polo Club is located at 3275 County Road 100, Carbondale, CO. The public is welcome to watch polo in a relaxed atmosphere. Admission and parking are free. The club’s Polo Hotline is 970-710-1663.
Alex Webbe