US Polo Association/Jordache Mayors Cup 7/15/12

US Polo Association/Jordache Mayors Cup 7/15/12

The Santa Barbara Polo Club is proud to announce that our 20 goal season is back in full swing. After a beautiful day and great crowd yesterday for the finals of the US Polo Association/Jordache Mayors Cup it is apparent that World Class polo is once again among us in Santa Barbara. At 1pm we had the Finals of the US. Polo Association/Jordache Mayor’s Cup, this 1pm game time will be the case for all the finals during the 20 goal season so that field is in pristine condition for all the finals. In this Final we had Farmers and Merchants Bank take on Mansour, and since Mansour is still waiting on their 9 goal player Hilario Ulloa to arrive from England, they used his 7 goal brother Salvador and were given two goals on handicap.

From the first throw in on it was evident that both teams and their horses were ready to play for real as the pace was full speed ahead all the way through the final horn.  Due to the handicap Farmers and Merchants Bank had to play catch up from the very beginning and Mansour was able to take advantage of this and shoot out to a good lead by the end of the second. In the third chukker Farmers and Merchants Bank sensed that the game might slip away so they brought their best horses to try and stage a comeback. Unfortunately for them though Mansour was able to resist and then in the fourth chukker Mansour came back with some horse power of their own and were able to stretch their lead to 6 goals, 12-6. In the fifth chukker Farmers and Merchants Bank kept pounding on the door of the Mansour goal but it would not cave in. However finally in the last chukker Farmers and Merchants Bank (FMB) were able to put together a comeback and cut the Mansour lead to 3 with a little over three minutes left, but Mansour seeing victory within their grasp tightened up their defense and secured a 13 to 10 victory. The best playing pony award was given to FMB’s 9 goal player Lucas Criado and his third chukker mare Chiruza, and the most valuable player award was given to Mansour’s Adam Snow.  

After this extremely fast and exciting final we had Grant’s Farm take on Lucchese in the Consolation final. However even though this was supposed to only be a glorified practice game both teams came out and proved otherwise. In the first half the pace steadily kept building up as one team would score and then the other team would answer, this went on until the end of the first half where the teams neck and neck and the pace was full throttle. After half time the competitive fire of both team showed with neither showing signs of letting off the gas and if anything both teams reaching in to their barn and pulling out the better horses. By the last chukker the game was still neck and neck but Grants Farm was able to pull out to a one goal lead with only a little time left they sealed the victory with a last second goal to end the game at 10-8. We would like to thank all of our sponsors from the weekend and all of the fans who made for a great finals atmosphere. If you were not able to make it this weekend make sure to come next weekend as the action will be continuing to get better and better.