Travieso Captures Fall Plates Title At Grand Champions Polo Club; Teo Calle Named MVP |
Arianna Delin, Sharon Robb for Grand Champions Polo ClubTravieso, one of the club’s winningest teams, added the Fall Plates to its resume with an impressive 7-3 victory over Palm Beach Polo Sunday at windswept Grand Champions Polo Club.
Buoyed by talent and chemistry, the foursome of Teo Calle, Tony Calle, Jared Sheldon and Carlucho Arellano broke open a close game to outscore Palm Beach Polo (Glenn Straub, JJ Celis, Nacho Lezica, Guille Aguero), 3-1, in the second half.
It was Travieso’s final medium goal tournament appearance of the fall season.
“With Teo and Tony all you have to do is open the game up and hit the ball,” 5-goaler Arellano said. “They both know how to go straight to goal and that’s the pleasure of playing with them. They go to the man hard.”
It was the first time Arellano played with Sheldon, a Team USPA member, who led Travieso scoring with a game-high four goals.
“I knew we would click, he’s great,” Arellano said. “We got a couple bounces that went our way and got a couple of goals that way and then momentum just helped us continue.”
Teo Calle, one of the club’s top amateurs and patron of the Ecuador-based team, was named Most Valuable Player.
“He is very deserving of MVP,” Sheldon said. “He made our jobs easier. I scored more goals today but it was because of what Teo and Tony were doing that allowed us to do what we can do.”
Calle was reunited on the field with his son and Arellano.
“We loved playing together,” Calle said. “Playing again with Carlucho and my son, it’s been a while. We had a lot of fun out there.
“We know each other and we trust each other which is important. We ran and made plays. We tried to make the play. If we missed, we missed but luckily the majority we hit.”
Maserati, a 12-year-old chestnut mare owned by Santa Rita Polo Farm and ridden by Sheldon, was named Best Playing Pony.
Sheldon said he was thrilled to play with Arellano and Travieso.
“I grew up watching Carlucho play so for me to play with him was awesome,” Sheldon said. “He played with my dad on the FIP team so it’s cool for me to be able to come play with him. I really like the way he plays, very classic and he’s a team player.
“Tony and Teo are warriors, they fight for everything. It’s a great team to be on. We were disciplined and kept things simple. Now I see why they are a winning team. When you have Teo and Tony working for you, it’s not fair to everyone else. It makes our job easier. I am not complaining. I’ll play with them every week if I can.”
In the Fall Plates Handicap Final, Riverview (Riley Ganzi, Martin Estrada, Wes Finlayson, Kris Kampsen) defeated Newport (Gene Goldstein, Grant Ganzi, Jesse Bray, Carlitos Gracida), 10-8.
Ganzi, 16, a junior at St. Andrew’s School, earned Most Valuable Player honors. Ganzi scored two goals and played well defensively.
Kampsen, led Riverview scoring with a game-high four goals. It was the first tournament the 6-goaler won as a father. Earlier in the week, Ali Solomine Kampsen gave birth to their first child, Rowan Alexander.
Finlayson added three goals for Riverview. Grant Ganzi led Newport with three goals and Goldstein added two goals.
Marco Polo, a 7-year-old dark bay stallion ridden by Grant Ganzi and owned by Santa Rita Polo Farm, was named Best Playing Pony.
Wellington-based ChukkerTV, leaders in polo broadcasting, is live streaming the entire fall season worldwide.
ChukkerTV’s state-of-the art technology features team challenges and instant replay which made their debut at Grand Champions in January, 2014.
Grand Champions, with eleven well-manicured fields, is enjoying its finest fall season in the ten-year history of the club.
The club has now hosted seven successful tournaments. In the previous six tournaments, Flexjet (MVP Riley Ganzi, Melissa Ganzi, Juan Bollini, Jason Crowder) won the season-opening Tackeria Invitational with a 7-6 victory over Casablanca. U.S. Trust (Marc Ganzi, Grant Ganzi, MVP Jared Shelton, Nic Roldan) won the U.S. Trust Cup with a 5.5-3 win over Flexjet. Casablanca (Jared Sheldon, Grant Ganzi, Tony Calle, MVP Jesse Bray) won the Fall Classic with an 11-9 victory over Flexjet. Postage Stamp Farm (Annabelle Gundlach, MVP Marc Ganzi, JJ Celis, Nic Roldan) won the Palm Restaurant Invitational with a 10-9 win over Flexjet; Palm Beach Polo (MVP Glenn Straub, Martin Estrada, Carlitos Gracida, Carlucho Arellano) won the Mt. Sopris Cup with a 7-4 win over Santa Rita; and Flexjet (Riley Ganzi, MVP Juan Bollini, Juancito Bollini, JJ Celis) defeated Audi, 7-6, in overtime to win the Pedro Morrison Memorial.
The final fall medium goal tournament of the season is this weekend’s Polo Gear Challenge followed by the 20-goal season.
Grand Champions is the only club in the nation to stage USPA-sanctioned 20-goal tournaments in the fall. The club is hosting the USPA National 20-Goal and USPA North American Cup.
In addition to the 20-goal tournaments, the Carlos Gracida Memorial Legends of Polo game and fifth annual International Cup featuring Team USA against Uruguay.
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