Cordoba Polo, playing together for the first time, won the Madelon Bourdieu Memorial Cup Sunday at Santa Rita Polo Farm’s Aspen Field.
By Sharon Robb
Photos by Candace Ferreira
On a perfect sun-drenched morning for polo, Cordoba Polo (Mary Wright, 0, Juan Manual Marre, 0, Esteban “Tricky” Matuz Hernandez, 0, Pedro Gutierrez, 5) defeated The Polo School (Meredith Lovegrove, -1, Ricky Bueno, -1, Santos Bollini, 2, Matias Gonzalez, 4), 6-5.5, in its club debut at Grand Champions.
Gutierrez, 35, playmaker and leading scorer for the team, was Most Valuable Player. Irenita Malcriadito, played by Matias Gonzalez in the first and fourth chukkers, was Grand Champions Best Playing Pony.
“It feels great to win,” said Gutierrez, the team captain.
Gutierrez, who has been playing since he was 12, put the team together for the championship final. He works with Wright and Hernandez and been playing together in practices and games for the last four years. Marre is a friend who he asked to play to round out the team.
“My teammates are good,” Gutierrez said. “We played disciplined polo, not getting too complicated. We wanted to control the ball, just hit and run and keep it open. We all had confidence in our teammates and we tried to play for each other.”
Gutierrez is scheduled to play in the President’s Cup this week then will travel to Argentina and France to play and return to Wellington for the spring season at Grand Champions. Gutierrez plans to play in New York for the summer.
There were only two lead changes before Cordoba took a 2-1.5 lead at the end of the first chukker. Gutierrez’ 30-yard penalty gave Cordoba the slim lead.
While the game was close in the second chukker Cordoba took advantage of The Polo School’s forced errors. Cordoba led 3-1.5 on Wright’s tap-in goal midway through the chukker. Gonzalez’ goal at the end of the second chukker cut the lead to 3-2.5.
The Polo School scored early in the third chukker to regain the lead, 3.5-3, but it was shortlived with Hernandez scoring to give Cordoba back the lead, 4-3.5.
In the fourth and final decisive chukker, Bueno scored off a long pass from Gonzalez to regain the lead, 4.5-4. Gutierrez then converted a 40-yard penalty to take back the lead, 5-4.5. Two minutes later, Gutierrez converted a 30-yard penalty to enable Cordoba to pull away, 6-4.5. Bueno scored his second goal of the game with 2:07 left to trail 6-5.5.
The Polo School had its share of scoring opportunities in the final two minutes. Gonzalez won the throw-in for possession late in the game. Bollini stole the ball to set up a drive but The Polo School could not get through Cordoba’s defense. Wright, playing well in the front for her teammates, and Marre and Hernandez all took turns tapping the ball while running out the clock.
Gutierrez scored a game-high four goals, all on penalty conversions. Wright and Hernandez each had one goal. For The Polo School, Gonzalez and Bueno each had two goals and Bollini added one. The Polo School received .5 on handicap.
Cordoba is named after the capital of the Argentine province of the same name and is one of Argentina’s largest cities.
The Memorial is played to honor Madelon Bourdieu, mother of Grand Champions Polo School Director Juan Bollini. Bourdieu, who passed away in 2009, came from a family with a strong polo tradition and was a player herself. The Bourdieu family has made significant contributions to the sport and founded two clubs in Argentina. One of her sons, Alejandro, was the awards presenter on Sunday.
Last year’s Madelon Bourdieu Memorial champion was La Dolfina, 4-3 winners over The Polo School, played at Valiente. The winning team was Myla Cambiaso, Alfonso Nero, Juan Cruz Marcos and Robertito Zedda. The MVP was Juan Cruz Marcos.