Valiente and Dubai polo teams playing musical chairs
By Alex Webbe
In one of the most interesting “musical chairs” edition in the game of polo, Bob Jornayvaz and his Valiente team will swap out with Dubai patron Rashid Albwardy for the 2016 United States Open Championship. Valiente will compete in the 26-goal C. V. Whitney Cup and the USPA Gold Cup with Bob Jornayvaz, Santi Torres, Santiago Chavanne and Adolfo Cambiaso. Albwardy will replace Jornayvaz for the US Open Championship while Jornayvaz will assemble a make-shift Valiente team in an effort to defend their 2015 US Open title.
“Rashid will have a Dubai team in the C. V. Whitney Cup and the USPA Gold Cup,” said Jornayvaz. “He’ll take my place with Adolfo (Cambiaso) in the Open and I’ll put another team together to play as Valiente.”
Both Dubai and Valiente are expected to have teams competing in the 20-goal competition leading up to the C. V. Whitney Cup. Albwardy will be competing in 20-goal play with some combination of Alejo Taranco, Adolfo Cambiaso and Diego Cavanagh, with the final lineup yet to be concluded. Jornayvaz indicated that his 20-goal team hasn’t been set yet either.
Following Florida’s winter season at the International Polo Club, Jornayvaz is scheduled to travel to England to compete in the 2016 Jaeger LeCoultre Gold Cup for the British Open. Albwardy will play in the Queens Cup in England with Adolfo Cambiaso and Juan Martin Nero (recently lowered to 9-goals) in an effort to atone for their one goal loss in 2015 to King Power Foxes. Albwardy will sit down for the Open, allowing Jornayvaz to play with Cambiaso and Nero in the Gold Cup.
“Rashid will be shipping his personal horses here (Florida) for the winter season and we (Cambiaso/Valiente) will mount the rest of the team,” Jornayvaz offered. “I will ship my personal horses to England for the British Open with the Dubai stables and players supplying the balance of the horses.” he said.
“A great deal of credit has to go to Adolfo (Cambiaso),” said Jornayvaz. “Through him I met and got to be friends with Ali Albwardy and the family. Dubai has a wonderful operation in England and we are comfortable that our (Valiente) facilities in Wellington (FL) are capable of making it an efficient and successful collaboration.”
Understanding that it’s all about the horses, Jornayvaz indicated that he had 34 horses shipped up from Argentina (all from the Cambiaso /Valiente breeding partnership). They were shipped last March and April and practiced in Denver, Colorado over the summer so they could fully acclimate to the hemispheric change. Combined with the scores of horses that are already in the country it is expected that both Dubai and Valiente will be well-mounted for the season.
The appearance of Rashid Albwardy in the United States to play high-goal polo is no accident. It has been through the efforts of Jornayvaz that a growing number of patrons have been recruited to participate in the Florida winter polo season. He was influential in convincing France’s Jerome Wirth to compete at the International Polo Club and now Albwardy. He also had a hand in getting Lucchese patron, John Muse, to organize a team for the 26-goal tournaments this year.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to travel and compete in other locations around the world,” said Jornayvaz, “and I think it is important to bring in new patrons if this high level of competition is to continue.”
The addition of Albwardy and Wirth to the high-goal season in Florida is only the beginning if Jornayvaz has anything to do with it. Acting as US Polo’s unofficial ambassador Jornayvaz plans to continue the marketing of American polo in hopes of attracting additional foreign patrons to the Florida polo scene.
“The key to attracting patrons and teams is the fields,” said Jornayvaz, “and we have plenty of them in Wellington.”
Boasting over 70 polo fields in the immediate area and a couple of private polo stadiums to compliment the one at the International Polo Club should be enough of an attraction to foreign patrons but it takes a personal connection to be able to convince these players to make the move, and Jornayvaz is staying on top of it. Whether or not the teams and patrons he recruits can make an impact on the polo scene as his Valiente team has is another story. Until then, the game goes on.