Valiente, Tonkawa Make Aspen Valley Polo Club Debut This Weekend In Mount Sopris Cup |
Arianna Delin, Sharon Robb for Aspen Valley Polo Club
The four-team tournament begins Friday with games at 1 and 3 p.m. at Tonkawa’s polo field. In the opening game at 1 p.m., Tonkawa (Jeff Hildebrand, Jimmy Seward, Pablo Spinaci, Carlitos Gracida), a 13-goal team, will play La Karina (Melissa Ganzi, Brian Boyd, Juan Bollini, Nic Roldan), rated at 14-goals. In the second half of the doubleheader, Valiente (Bob Jornayvaz, Robertito Zeda, Augustine Nero, Marc Ganzi), a 13-goal team, will face FlexJet (Grant Ganzi, Juancito Bollini, Lucas Lalor, Stewart Armstrong), an 11-goal team. It’s expected to be one of the most competitive tournaments of the season. FlexJet is coming off last weekend’s thrilling Louis Vuitton Cup victory led by Lucas Lalor, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Action continues on Sunday at Aspen Valley Polo Club with games at 11 a.m. and featured game at 3 p.m.
Valiente’s polo organization, based in Denver and Wellington, Fla., captured the 111th USPA 26-goal U.S. Open defeating Orchard Hill, 11-9, in April in its third consecutive final appearance. Valiente’s most recent win was the 28th annual Denver Polo Classic where it defeated Schomp BMW, 8-6, at the Polo Reserve in Littleton, Colo. Robert Jornayvaz, a Denver businessman, and one of the sport’s top padrons, owns the Columbine Polo and Equestrian Center in Littleton. After a 15-year hiatus from the sport, Jornayvaz returned to the sport in 2012. Tonkawa’s team captain Jeff Hildebrand, a Houston businessman, competes during Wellington’s 20-goal season. He has a polo field in Snowmass, Colo. at his High Mesa Ranch estate, where he plays in July and August and has ties to the local Aspen community.
Mount Sopris is a twin-summit mountain just south of Carbondale in the northwestern Elk Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains. Named for Richard Sopris, a former mayor of Denver, it dominates the skyline of Carbondale and serves as the unofficial symbol of the area. Eight summer tournaments have been played at Aspen Valley Polo Club. Melody Polo Team won the first two tournaments–Independence Cup and ChukkerTV Challenge; Aspen Valley Polo Team won the Aspen Valley Cup I; Travieso won the Craig Sakin Memorial; La Karina won the Basalt Handicap Cup and Aspen Valley Cup II; KIG captured the Emma Challenge; Audi won the inaugural ChukkerTV Arena Challenge Cup and FlexJet won the Louis Vuitton Cup. The club wraps up its summer season next week with the Rocky Mountain Cup.
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