The fifth and final polo tournament of the spring polo season begins Friday at Grand Champions Polo Club.
By Sharon Robb
Newport, the winningest team of the spring polo season, has won three consecutive titles with the Santa Rita Abierto, Casablanca Spring Challenge and Eastern Challenge, and are the favorites again this weekend.
Three teams will compete in a round robin at 4:45 p.m. Friday with the scores carried over into Sunday’s final at 10 a.m.
The teams are Aspen Valley (Santos Bollini, 2, Leo Mandelbaum, 2, Nic Roldan, 8, Juan Bollini, 3); Newport (Gene Goldstein, Jason Crowder, 5, Sugar Erskine, 6, Tomacho Pieres, 6) and SebiLion (Sebastian Mandelbaum, Grant Ganzi, 3, Fred Mannix, 7, Tommy Collingwood, 5).
On Saturday, the Just For The Love Of It will feature Aspen Valley against Grand Champions at 10 a.m.
In last year’s The Memorial final, Santa Rita (Melissa Ganzi, Riley Ganzi, Fred Mannix, Alejandro Novillo Astrada) defeated Casablanca (Marc Ganzi, Grant Ganzi, Nic Roldan, Tito Gaudenzi) and Fly Polo (Rebecca Cohen, Vinny Sangaline, Sugar Erskine, Pablo Spinacci) in a round robin. Astrada was Most Valuable Player.
The Memorial is held in honor of Memorial Day, (originally known as Decoration Day), a Federal holiday on which those who died in active military service are remembered, traditionally observed on May 30 but now officially observed on the last Monday in May.
Several top and up-and-coming players and patrons are competing during the fun and competitive spring league.
During the spring season, amateur polo players get the chance to play with and against some of the world’s top professional polo players including 8-goaler Nic Roldan and 7-goalers Fred Mannix and Alejandro Novillo Astrada. It is geared towards improving polo skills and having fun. The spring league is also a great opportunity for younger players to develop and hone their skills against their peers and more experienced players.