The Hurlingham Open will be decided on Sunday, and within the Ellerstina lineup Hilario Ulloa is the only one who remains without winning this competition. It’s going to be his second attempt in this final since he also played the one back in 2017 for Alegria. After a convincing and solid start, including the title in Tortugas, but above all an amazing and very fast level of play, Ellerstina’s number 2 is only hours away from jumping into the field to conquer his dream.
“There were very high expectations on how we were going to play due to the positions, if we were building the right team because we didn’t have the right positions. And I think apart from winning Tortugas and reaching the Hurlingham Open final, the team is playing really well, we found the rhythm, we found the way of playing in which we have a lot of speed with the horses and the players,” says Hilario Ulloa to Pololine TV.
He continues: “I know that it’s up to us, up to Ellerstina, that if we keep that way of playing, if we keep that rhythm, we keep hitting the ball, we have a big chance of doing it.”
It will be a very special final for Hilario Ulloa, not only because he’s looking for his first ever title in Hurlingham, but also because he will be facing his brother-in-law Francisco Elizalde and also his former teammates Facundo Sola and Guillermo Caset. “I’m very happy for Fran, he’s worked really hard, he deserves to be in a final, he’s been fighting a lot to be in this spot in the last couple of years to get mounted to keep improving, and I think he’s at the highest level I’ve seen him playing in the last few years. And also I’m very happy for Facu Sola and Sapo; I’ve been with them, we’ve been teammates, we all fight really hard to win tournaments and I think many things were said last year but I’ll always be very proud of what they are doing and I’m always happy to see them success, so of course I want to win more than anything but I’ll be happy if I see them winning too.”
Last but not least, playing for Ellerstina is always a big challenge, but the happiness in this occasion is even bigger because many of his home-bred horses (Lavinia) are taking part of this Triple Crown, which is really remarkable for Hilario Ulloa and his family. “This is the result of many years of breeding and producing good horses, improving our bloodline, improving our way of breaking, making the horses, because it’s a tough challenge and it took us many years to have so many horses playing the Open. I have 8 Lavinia horses playing the Triple Crown, so I’m very proud of that. And it’s been the hard work of me and my family and my group of work for the last 15 years.”
WATCH FULL INTERVIEW WITH HILARIO ULLOA (POLOLINE TV)
https://player.vimeo.com/video/482035614