22-goal Gold Cup in Venezuela
By Alex Webbe
After the absence of high-goal
polo on the Venezuelan landscape for years, it has returned in a big way under
the guidance and sponsorship of 4-goaler Victor Vargas as nine teams are
participating in both 22-goal and 26-goal Gold Cup competitions at the Caracas
Polo Club.
On Thursday afternoon Caracas Polo (Victor Vargas, Toto
Collardin, Juan Brane and Pablo Jauretche) scoring a 7-5 win over Tucacas (Facundo
Castagnola, Santiago Cernadas, Toto Urturi and Marcelo Frayssinet) in the
opening match of a three team 26-goal Gold Cup tournament, but that was merely
a precursor to the weekend’s action.
Friday afternoon saw six teams take the field in 22-goal
Gold Cup play that saw Los Samanes II (Luis Eduardo, Toto Collardin, Juan Brane
and Andres James) score a 6-5 win over Sebucan (Gonzalo Mendoza, Sebastian
Harriot, Pablo Jauretche and Toto Urturi); Los Samanes (Carlos Silva, Facundo
Castagnola, Agustin Canale and Marcelo Frayssinet) edge Eliet Polo (Elias Celis,
Jose Rivas, Juan Harriot and Julia Diaz) 10-9; and Caracas Polo (Victor Vargas,
Alfredo Vargas, Juan M. Nero and Martin Espain) end the day with an 8-5 win
over Mindanao (Jaime Restrepo, Tomas Franco, Santiago Cernadas and Jose
Villamil).
The same six teams returned to the field on Saturday where
Sebucan beat Mindanao 8-7; Los Samanes and Los Samanes II battled to a 7-7 tie;
and Caracas Polo rode past Eliet Polo 9-5.
Twenty-two goal competition will continue through the month
with the finals scheduled to be played on Saturday, October 5.