Santa Barbara Polo Club – Ladies Tournament

Santa Barbara Polo Club

This past Weekend at SBPRC was jam packed in every sense of the words. First of all we had the Santa Barbara Women’s tournament which featured four -1 to 1 goal teams that competed Saturday and Sunday in a single elimination tournament.   On Saturday Empire beat Tresor de Vintage and Blanco/Santa Clarita prevailed over California Polo Club. On Sunday in looked like the finals would be a tight battle between to evenly matched teams but unfortunately Empire defense was too much for Blanco/Santa Clarita and after giving up one open goal penalty in the first chukker they played shut down defense to seal the victory 4 to 1. We would also like to thank a number of people with out which the Women’s tournament would not have been possible. First of all thank you to Claudia Uretz for putting together all the gift bags, Mary Kay representative Leslie Stenke for donating supplies for the gift basket, George Gilstrap for donating trophies, David Lominska for helping cook for the dinner. Also we would like to thank the Santa Barbara Polo School and all the kids for volunteering their time to do the duties for the games, Paige Beard for helping organize the tournament and Justin Klentner for hosting the Barbeque. Finally we would like to thank all the following people for donating horses and/or umpiring, Corky Linfoot, Jeep Holden, Santi Trotz, Jesse Bray, Alvaro Tadeo, Luis Escobar, Santi Wulff, John Westley, Patrick Uretz, Santi Von Wernich, John Muse, Pat Nesbit, Wes Ru and Artie Cameron.     


After the excitement from the Ladies tournament had faded out, the fans shifted over to the Sunday field to catch the two USPA Intra Circuit 12 goal games. In the 1pm game Mansour took on Farmers and Merchants Bank. In the first two chukkers it looked like Farmers and Merchants Bank might start to pull away with them scoring the first three goals of the game and having all the momentum. However Mansour came roaring back scoring the next four goals and taking a two goal lead in to half-time thanks to their goal on handicap. In the fourth chukker Mansour carried over the momentum that they had built up before half time and scored the next four goals to take a commanding 6 goal lead. Farmers and Merchants bank did their best to battle back but in the end it was not enough as Mansour captured the victory by a score of 10 to 8.


In the 3pm game Film Finance faced off against Cotterel. In the first chukker Cotterel burst out of the gates getting out to an early lead and then stretching it to lead 8-3 by the end of the third chukker. Cotterel who had their sights set on a virtual semi final game against Mansour, if they won, made sure not to let off the gas. Film Finance did their best to loosen Cotterel’s strangle hold on the game but with the semi final on the line Cotterel made sure not to give in an inch. The final score was 12-6 in favor of Cotterel. 

This Friday’s games will determine who advances to the final of the USPA Intra-Circuit Tournament, the most prestigious 12 goal tournament of the season.