The Tackeria Invitational championship final couldn’t have been more exciting for fans Sunday at Grand Champions Polo Club.
By Sharon Robb
Photos by Candace Ferreira
With time running out, Sugar Erskine scooped up a pass from Martin Jauregui and outraced defenders to score with three seconds left and give Audi (Dominic State, Martin Jauregui, Marc Ganzi, Sugar Erskine) a thrilling 7-6 victory over The Polo School (Phil Gutman, Santos Bollini, Pedro Gutierrez, Pablo Dorignac) in the season-opener.
“It was inside 30 seconds, the bell had gone,” Erskine said. “They had possession and were sort of creeping it down.They probably had a shot at goal and were within distance of being able to shoot, but lost possession. When I saw that happen Martin was very quick and gave me back the ball. I kept having to check the clock on the way back down. I knew I was running out of time. I didn’t know if I had enough time to run it in so I just shot from where I was at.
“I’m sure I made all the grooms happy by scoring a goal with a few seconds left so they wouldn’t have to tack up another horse. I think I kept everybody happy.”
Ganzi swept Most Valuable Player and Best Playing Pony honors with Extravaganza. Ganzi finished with seven goals, including two penalty conversions, for the two-day tournament.
“Marc played awesome the whole tournament,” Erskine said. “He scored a ton of goals.”
In a three-team competitive round robin that began on Friday, Audi defeated Travieso, 8-4, and then clinched with a 7-6 win over The Polo School. In the other three-chukker match The Polo School topped Travieso (Johnny Castillo/Riley Ganzi, Jason Crowder, Teo Calle, Juan Bollini), 9-6.
In the final round robin, the lead changed hands seven times before Erskine’s heroics. The teams were tied four times. Both teams had scoring opportunities early in the third chukker.
“We did expect a close game,” Erskine said. “Pedro played awesome, Pablo is super good at controlling the game and Tato you have to chase up and down the field. Both teams missed a few goals to get away from the other team in the last chukker. We kept keeping each other in the game.”
With Audi leading 3-2 after opening day action, Gutierrez converted a safety to tie the game 3-3. Ganzi came back with a 30-yard penalty conversion to give Audi a 4-3 lead. Gutierrez scored again to end the chukker at 4-4.
For two more chukkers, it was much of the same back-and-forth action with Jauregui, Erskine and Gutierrez all scoring goals including a 60-yard penalty conversion by Jauregui with 2:35 left in the game to give Audi a 6-5 advantage. Gutierrez then converted a penalty-three to tie the game, 6-6.
In opening round robin action on Saturday, The Polo School defeated Travieso, 6-2; Audi topped Travieso, 4-1 and Audi edged The Polo School, 3-2. The scores carried over into the final.
In addition to Ganzi’s seven goals in two days, Guitierrez scored eight goals, Jauregui and Dorignac each had four goals.
In last year’s final, Aspen Valley (Govinda Quish, Jason Crowder, 5, Sugar Erskine, 6, Nic Roldan, 8) edged Casablanca (Santos Bollini, 2, Grant Ganzi, 3, Tomacho Pieres, 6, Martin Jauregui, 6), 10-9, to win the club’s oldest tournament. With four seconds left, Roldan scored the game-winner on an incredible lofted angle shot from the sideboards.
The Tackeria Invitational has a special place in club history as the inaugural tournament when the club first opened in 2007. The Tackeria was founded in 1975 by Tony Coppola.
“We knew there was going to be a lot of rain and obviously everything that’s happened in the last couple of weeks was tough for everybody,” Erskine said. “It was good to get out there. I’m always excited about the season. I love playing polo with these guys.”
The nation’s largest and most innovative polo club is celebrating its 18th anniversary. The family-friendly club welcomes spectators of all ages. All matches are free (with the exception of special catered events) and open to the public and dogs on leashes.
Grand Champions and Santa Rita Polo Farm is the largest and most unique private 102-acre polo facility in Wellington with 212 stalls in nine self-contained barns, two tracks, five climate-controlled tack rooms, vet room, staff quarters, guest house and four polo fields with state-of-the-art underground irrigation and short work arena. The club has 10 well-manicured world-class fields at GCPC and Santa Rita.
Grand Champions Polo Club caters to men, women and youth polo players at all levels. Its’ expert staff can customize a complete playing experience including horses, pros and certified umpires in addition to lessons and practice sessions as part of its’ Polo On Demand program. The Polo School is for all ages and ability levels and operates in Wellington year-round.