Palm Beach contest

When talking of Palm Beach, it is well worth making a small detour. The competition takes place at Wellington, a city within the Palm Beach County. Wellington is a very residential district, with a ve

ry agreeable climate in winter and bearably hot in summer, and where it is almost impossible to get around on public transport –thus the enormous amount of car rental offers–. It looks like a large country club: streets lined with trees, long blocks, many houses–one storey in general–and very few stores and public buildings. In fact, people do their shopping at two or three malls, and there is even a drive through banking service. Additionally, it is also a very important American equestrian center, with enormous activity. It is also important as a National polo center, with several clubs, tournaments and ponies.

So much so, that the I.P.C., that has five polo fields next to a pretty stream, is surrounded–in some cases separated by a hedge and in others not even that–by various clubs with their stables and polo fields. The entity, founded by John Goodman three years ago, hosts the Open and all the high goal circuit from its very creation. And it would seem that it will continue to do so for quite a few more years, after the debacle, the almost dismantling, polo-wise, of the Palm Beach Polo, Golf & Country Club, that had hosted the season for six consecutive years until 2001. Like almost everywhere, the main field is the Nº 1: the one with the smart stands with tiled roofs that we often see in photos, and where polo is played almost only on Sundays, which are like gala days during the season and where the Most Valuable Player and Best Playing Pony trophies are handed out. There also, opposite the fixed stands, a tent is set up for v.i.p. spectators and where the Polo Ball of the Open is held, and where men attend wearing tuxedos and women their most elegant attires.

All very nice, but what about the polo fields? Impecable. Not only the grass, but also its resistance to water, even considering that the Florida peninsula is a very low region, so much so that–not in Wellington–there are even swamps. One of Outback’s plots of land, closed in by the I.P.C. fields, is so vaulted that if one is sitting on a low seat, you can’t see the boards on the other side of the field. Another observation regarding the land is something that is very well known abroad: during the long intervals (ten minutes between the third and fourth chukka, because six are played), spectators go out on to the field to step it down and cover the holes with the loose grass.

Crab Orchard vs. All The Rest.

But the most relevant thing of all occurred in the US Open, where Crab Orchard arrived with the ‘favorite’ sign, after having won the U.S.P.A. Gold Cup of the tournament before, and because it had Cambiaso on its side, of course. Other feasible candidates? Several: the defender of the crown, Las Monjitas, with Eduardo (Jr.) and Ignacio Novillo Astrada and Guillermo Caset (Jr.); the ever forceful La Lechuza Caracas, with Juan Ignacio and Sebastián Merlos, and White Birch, with Mariano Aguerre and Lucas Monteverde, and the well stocked team Pony Express, with figures such as Bautista Heguy, Francisco Bensadón and Mexican Carlos Gracida.

Jedi was not–and didn’t even seem to be–among the most powerful. It could have been considered dangerous, because of having the up-coming Pablo Mac Donough, Juan Martín Nero and Christian Laprida (Jr.) as its professionals. But the blue and yellow foursome was strongly taken into consideration by all when in the initial round of the Open it surprised Crab Orchard with a clear 10-8. Up until then, the only team against which Cambiaso and Magrini had lost, playing in championships of up to 22 goals as New Bridge-La Dolfina and winning in both cases (the Joe Barry Memorial and the Ylvisaker Cups) with Martín Valent, was Skeeterville which had beaten Crab Orchard by a close 13-12 in its debut in the C.V. Whitney Cup.