Chapaleufú wins
Jockey Club Open in OT
By Alex Webbe
As a precursor to the 2013 qualifiers for the Hurlingham and
Argentine Opens, Chapaleufú relied on the veteran play of Pepe, Bautista and
Eduardo Heguy and a talented Francisco Elizalde to come from behind to tie the
game up before recording a 13-12 win in the finals of the 2013 Jockey Club Open
in San Isidro Saturday afternoon.
All six of the qualifiers were on hand along with a 36-goal
Casablanca entry that included 10-goalers Pablo MacDonough and Juan Martin
Nero, but it was the venerable Heguys that carried the day and establishing themselves
as the favorites in the upcoming elimination tournament that will fill out the field
for the final two legs of Argentina’s Triple Crown of Polo.
Saturday, September 21 was carried out the final match of
the traditional tournament for the open of the Jockey Club of San Isidro. On
this occasion the legendary Chapaleufú team won champion after beating by 13-12
in supplementary chukka the strong Quartet of La California. Eduardo Heguy gave
the victory to his team after converting a Safety at the eighth.
Chapaleufú took the field with confidence and built up a comfortable
four goal lead over La California (Diego Cavanagh, Guillermo Terrera, Ignatius
Du Plessis and Tomas Garcia Del Rio) before they got their heads into the
game. A late chukker rally saw La
California score three consecutive goals and cut the Chapaleufú lead to two by
end the chukker.
Aggressive play by La California took the wind out of the
sails of a disciplined Chapaleufú foursome as they saw their lead disappear. Three goals from La California’s South
African 7-goaler, “Nachi” Du Plessis, fueled the attack, and fifth
chukker goals from Tomas Garcia Del Rio and Diego Cavanagh ended the fifth with
Chapaleufú trailing by two goals despite a pair of penalty goals from Eduardo
Heguy.
There was no quit in the veteran Chapaleufú lineup, however,
and sixth chukker goals from Eduardo and Pepe Heguy tied it up and forced the
sudden-death overtime chukker.
Eduardo Heguy converted a 60-yard Safety in the extra
chukker for the win, making Chapaleufú an early favorite in the Qualifiers that
will get underway on Thursday, September 26.
Eduardo Heguy led all scoring with nine goals (eight on
penalty conversions). Alberto Heguy
scored twice and Francisco Elizalde and Bautista Heguy each added single goals
for the win. Tomas Garcia Del Rio’s five
penalty goal led the La California offense.
Nachi Du Plessis scored four times and Diego Cavanagh added three goals
in a losing effort.
Bautista Heguy received the award for the Best Mounted
Player of the final while Eduardo Heguy was awarded the Gonzalo Tanoira
Sportsmanship Award. Pepe Heguy’s Polo
Catastrophe was named the Best Playing Pony of the final by the Jockey Club.
Chapaleufú will be back in action on Tuesday, October 1 when
they face the loser of the opening game of the Qualifiers between Cuatro
Vientos (Juan Martin Zavaleta, Jr., Juan Grossi, Alejandro Agote and Santiago
Tanoira) and Las Overas (Salvador Ulloa, Valerio Zubiaurre, Guillermo
Willington and Alfredo Barabucci).