Splashy End to SoCal Polo

By Paula Parisi October 11, 2010

Southern California’s 2010 polo season closed on a high note, with the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic Oct. 10 at Will Rogers State Historic Park.

Nacho Figueras, the Argentine polo player whose face is known the world over as the face of Ralph Lauren’s Polo Fragrances, trekked in from New York to play under his Black Watch team imprimatur, with players Ben Soleimani, Carlos Gracida and Joel Baker.

Powered by three Figueras goals, Black Watch won 8–7 over Rico Mansur and team Veuve Clicquot (TJ Barrack, Matt Ladin and Artie Cameron). Gracida was named Most Valuable Player. The five-chukka match played out before about 2,000 spectators, including celeb invitees Minnie Driver, Rachel Zoe, Mischa Barton and Brittany Snow.

Team Veuve spilled over into the VIP tent, where there was a ’20s and ’30s fashion theme and live musical quartet. Veuve Clicquot USA vice president Vanessa Kay held sway with Graham Boyes, executive vice president Moet Hennessy.

L.A. famous food trucks—Fishlips (sushi), Frysmith (hand-cut taters), Let’s Be Frank! (100% grass-fed beef hot dogs) and Coolhaus (ice cream) kept the noshables coming, while the champagne flowed. The event benefitted the California State Parks and The Will Rogers Ranch Foundation in cooperation with the Will Rogers Polo Club Inc.

The Veuve event marked the first time the company held its Polo Classic on the West Coast and was heralded as “the return of professional polo to Los Angeles.”

About a week prior, on Oct. 4, Figueras made his debut at the Santa Barbara Racquet and Polo Club. Playing in an exhibition game in a 10-goal match, Figueras led his team, Gehache/Homewood, to an 8–5 victory over Beverly Hills Institute. At halftime, Figueras spoke to the crowd about his life, his career as a polo player and model and about his dream of bringing back the glory days of polo, when crowds of 20,000 people would attend polo matches. Some of the fans chatting with him afterwards were heard to say that this was their first polo match, a testament to his goal of bringing a new audience to the sport.

Earlier that same day Mansour maintained its perfect record in the 8-goal category, besting China Beach 11–9 in the United States Polo Association’s Presidents Cup. The tournament—the last Southern California USPA match of 2010—marked the end of a triumphant season in Santa Barbara, where the world’s No. 1 ranked player, Adolfo Cambiaso, electrified sold-out crowds playing as part of John Muse’s Lucchese team during the 20-goal season.

“In July and August the best polo in the world is played in Santa Barbara,” said Jonathan Burrows, whose team, Mr. Cecil’s California Ribs, earlier in the summer had won the two big tournaments of the 12-goal season, the Vic Graber Memorial and the USPA 12-goal Intercircuit tournament. “The best players in the word go to play there. It’s not the highest goal polo in the world—that’s played in Palm Beach in the winter, and they play like 26 goal—but it’s the place to be in the summer.”

Burrows, a Los Angeles restaurateur and owner of the aforementioned rib joint, has played polo all over the world and hopes next summer to be able to swing his mallet in Deauville, France, where “they play polo on the infield of the racetrack during racing season.”

Having played for 27 years, he’s the first to admit that polo has a “snobby reputation,” but he says it’s actually an accessible sport. “Yes, it’s expensive to maintain a professional team, but there are affordable ways to get involved. In Santa Barbara we have something called arena polo, and it’s just four chukkas on a field one-tenth the size, and you can get by with two horses. For a comparatively small amount of money you can learn polo and play on rented horses.”

Because it’s something of an aspirational sport and does require some resources, many men come to polo later in life, which means that “there are a lot of people who learn to ride and play polo at the same time. And that’s doable,” Burrows adds, noting, “It’s a little like scuba diving. You don’t have to be a great swimmer. You just need to wear a mask, fins and a tank.”

On Oct. 19 Santa Barbara Polo wrapped its season with the Last Chance Cup, in which teams from outside clubs at Will Rogers, Menlo Park and the California Polo Club participated. The Barossa team won the 2-4 goal series, besting Will Rogers 17-11.

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