Alegria Wins the Biggest Polo Match of the Season

LAKE WORTH, Fla. - April 21, 2014 - PRLog -- The weeks-long tournament of the 110th Maserati United States Open Polo Championship ended this Sunday at the International Polo Club with Alegria defeating Valiente 11-10.

The teams were tied 4 to 4 at the half. At the beginning of the 6^th chukker, Valiente’s Santi Torres made the play of the day with a neck shot at a wide angle. Valiente then scored a penalty with two minutes left, leaving them up by one point, but Alegria’s Clemente Zavaleta scored in the last thirty seconds of the game, forcing the match to go into overtime. Alegria’s Hilario Ulloa missed a penalty shot one way, Valiente’s Sapo Caset missed a breakaway by foot when trying to score a penalty the other way, but finally Hilario Ulloa scored a penalty, winning the game for Alegria.

The match was hard-fought and hard-won on Alegria’s part, no doubt still smarting from their last tournament loss to Valiente at the Piaget USPA Gold Cup in late March. Alegria’s major upset squashed Valiente’s attempt to make the United States Polo Association's equivalent to the Triple Crown, the combination of victories in the three biggest polo tournaments of the season, the other two being the C.V. Whitney and the Piaget USPA Gold Cup, both of which Valiente had already won.

The exciting, nail-biting match the perfect match recorded to be broadcast on national TV, on Saturday, June 21^st, from 2-3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on NBC. Valiente’s team consisted of Santi Torres, Bob Jornayvaz, Juan Martin Nero, and Sapo Caset. Having been plagued by injuries throughout the three major tournaments, Adolfo Cambiaso was out of the final, replaced by Juan Martin Nero, his teammate from the Argentine Open. Alegria’s team consisted of Julian Mannix, Clemente Zavaleta, Mariano Aguerre and Hilario Ulloa.

Ulloa’s horse Mia won Best Playing Pony, after playing admirably in the 2^nd, 5^th and overtime chukkers. President of the Board of Governors Joe Meyer presented Clemente Zavaleta with the award of Most Valuable Player, while U.S. Polo Association Board Chairman Chuck Weaver presented the winning trophy to Alegria.

Eight teams faced off in the prominent tournament. The high stakes 110^th Maserati U.S. Open Polo Championship® included some of the best polo players in the world battling it out for the sport’s oldest and most coveted trophy in America. Since its inception in 1909, the U.S. Open Polo Championship® had been the pinnacle of IPC’s high-goal polo season and the last leg of the United States Polo Association's equivalent to the Triple Crown, with the C.V. Whitney Cup and Piaget USPA Gold Cup® preceding.

About the United States Polo Association®

The U.S. Polo Association was organized and exists for the purposes of promoting the game of polo, coordinating the activities of its Member Clubs and Registered Players, arranging and supervising polo tournaments, competitions, and games, and providing rules, handicaps, and conditions for those tournaments, competitions, and games including the safety and welfare of participants and mounts. For more information, please visit www.uspolo.org.

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Sulagna Misra

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