INSIDE THE TENT 

Handicaps and Hocus-Pocus at the Queen’s Cup

By Darlene Ricker

On the eve of the Queen’s Cup semifinals a friend asked Valiente/Dubai patron Bob Jornayvaz, “What do you think about the final? We both know it’s going to be Dubai and King Power.”

 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” replied Jornayvaz, whose lens on polo is like that of an art critic. You could see him mentally taking 10 paces backward, as though analyzing an impressionist painting that comes into focus only from a distance.

 

“I think people are underestimating La Indiana,” he said. “The quality of that team this year is amazing. When you have Nic Roldan on 7, anything can happen.” Add to the mix Tincho Merlos handicapped at 8 and Negro de Lusarreta at 6, and you have a serious force, each player rated one goal below his U.S. handicap.

 

Other than a big-picture guy like Jornayvaz—and perhaps legendary odds maker Jimmy the Greek—few would have bet the farm on La Indiana having a chance at defeating odds-on favorite and defending champion King Power Foxes. But indeed, the so-called underdog took the day. The much-anticipated Dubai-King Power showdown (which would essentially have been La Dolfina vs. Ellerstina in disguise), is off the ticket for Saturday.

 

When La Indiana became the only team in the tournament to topple King Power,  the headlines called it an “upset” victory, which in the conventional sense it was. But the caprices of the handicap system have been turning conventional wisdom on its head this season. Perhaps no team has been as cognizant of that as King Power Foxes, who took the field with double-barreled Pieres power. (As Jornayvaz put it, “Facundo is Facundo—on any given day he’s the best player in the world, and on the other day it’s Adolfo. And Gonzalito is a 10 all day long.”) 

 

Numbers aside, King Power was taking nothing for granted. They spent hours the day before the semis in a 12-man meeting reviewing game videos. (Facundo in particular is extremely disciplined in that regard. Two seasons ago when Horseplay Productions launched a subscription service during the U.S. season for team video footage with a customizable stats breakdown, Facundo was fascinated. He was among the first to sign up and became by far the most frequent user, often logging in daily and reviewing tapes for hours.) But despite their intense pre-game prep, King Power lost the semis in a match that looked like a sure bet for overtime.

 

Earlier in the day, the other semifinal contest between Dubai and Zacara was the flip side of the coin. It played out pretty much as expected, featuring its own version of the numbers game. Dubai blasted past Zacara 16-12, propelled by the synergy of Adolfo Cambiaso and Juan Martín Nero. With this combo, everyone knows that 10 and 9 add up to a lot more than 19 goals. That’s what you get when you knock the best back in the world down to 9 (Nero is rated 10 in the U.S.).

 

As for Saturday’s final, La Indiana is technically still the underdog—but less so than they were a few days ago. Let’s see how the numbers play out this time.