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spectators. This year, however, the Pennell
drew unusually high interest, as the final
game was the featured match on the ‘new’
official opening day, 1 January 2017.
Ten-goaler Hilario Ulloa, who competed
for victorious Villa del Lago Modere in the
Pennell, arrived with an edge on the Most
Valuable Player award that came his way:
15 superb horses. ‘This season is really
competitive in the 20-goal series, so we all
worked really hard over the past few months
to get better horses, and more of them, so
we could have an improved and larger string,’
he said. Because he was not entered in the
26-goal series this season, Ulloa said he
was able to play the 20-goal series with all
of his best horses, an advantage that was
evident on the field.
Villa del Lago Modere took the Herbie
Pennell trophy 12–9 over Postage Stamp
Farm, a new team at IPC, which had an
excellent season under patrona Annabelle
Gundlach, a fresh face there. The addition
of other new teams and the return of Goose
Creek after a two-year hiatus began to foster
a cautious optimism in the sustained
viability of IPC.
The lineup of eight strong teams in the
next tournament, the Joe Barry Memorial,
was seen as a good sign. Besides Villa del
Lago Modere, there were Coca-Cola, Goose
Creek, Grand Champions Polo Club, La
Indiana, Mt Brilliant, Postage Stamp Farm
and Tonkawa. As expected, Tonkawa’s young
Costi Caset, a member of Team USPA, played
with stunning skill. His handicap went up
to 5, effective January 2018.
Coca-Cola, La Indiana and Postage
Stamp Farm rode through bumps in the
road during the Joe Barry when each lost
a player to injury (Del Walton for Coca-Cola,
L A I N D I A N A P R O V E D T H E
Q U I N T E S S E N T I A L F O U R - M A N T E A M
Opposite, from left:
Michael Bickford and
Bo Goodman in the Joe Barry Finals.
This page, from left:
Mike Azzarro,
Jeff Hall, Gringo Colombres and
Michael Bickford
