Since 1984, the Costa Careyes Polo Club has traditionally hosted a tournament in celebration of the Chinese New Year. This year was the Year of the Monkey. The weather was picture-perfect at the private, gated resort of Careyes, located in Mexico on the Pacific Ocean.
Four teams with players from Argentina, USA, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Mexico vied for the championship. Special guest for the tournament and grand celebration was Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, Prince of Piedmonte and Venice, with a historic relationship with Scappino, a men’s clothier since the 1930’s.
Play was very competitive during the first game, in which Team Careyes, consisting of Chris, Will and Katie Falk along with Nico Millan, played against a team from Ibiza, Spain, including Gabriel Iglesias, Jesus Solorzano, Luis Olazabal and Erick Cornejo. Ibiza won the match by a narrow margin, 8-7. Leading scorer for the day was Nico Millan scoring 5 goals for Team Careyes.
Second game saw team Prince di Savoia/Scappino, including one time 10-goaler, Ernesto Trotz as well as Giorgio Brignone, founder of the Costa Careyes Polo Club, Guillermo Steta, President of the Mexican Polo Federation, and Diego Aguilar, face team Agua Alta, consisting of Alberico Ardissone, Manuel Matos Gil, Diego Gonzalez and Luis Perez. Hard fought play and back-to-back scoring by both teams, the ended with a victory for team Scappino by 5-4.
On the final day, team Careyes competed against team Agua Alta in the match for third place. The game looked like Careyes was going to be the winner, but in the last chukka the Agua Alta team scored 3 goals and thus emerged victorious by 7-6. Millan was again high scorer of the day with 6 goals for Careyes.
The championship game was up and down the field and at halftime the score was 4-3 in favour of the Scappino team over the visiting Ibiza team. During the third chukka Trotz scored 3 quick goals. That chukka put the game out of reach for the Ibiza team and finally the Scappino/Prince di Savioa team was victorious by 8-5. Trotz was top scorer with 6 goals for team Scappino/Prince di Savioa.
The beautiful grey mare Pepita, owned by Diego Aguilar and played during 2 chukkas by Trotz, was named Best Playing Pony. Trophy presentation provided all with locally hand painted trophies, gifts from Scappino, champagne and festivities at Plaza de los Caballeros for the Chinese New year celebration.