USPA
Pacific Coast Circuit

The Electronic Polo Gazette will publish content as it is proved to us. Please send us your stories and photographs via e-mail or standard mail to: E-mail: sandyherron@aol.com , Bella Vista Polo Club,
205 Lambert Rd., Carpinteria, CA 93013.

I just returned from four exciting days of Polo in Argentina. As some of you know, Billy Sheldon, Cary Burch & Mark Register won the Lan Chile Tournament this year at California Polo and earned the trip as their reward. Billy couldn't go so the great guy that he is, he said his Dad should go in his place. That is truly amazing as he knows I will never win it to pay himback. Thanks again Billy for convincing your mother to let me go.

After a few passport problems (if you are getting a passport call me. I am now the expert and will advise you on what to do and what not do). I picked up my passport at 10:35 AM and drove like hell to catch a 12:15 PM flight (they started making it at 8:45 AM on the same day of the flight, when I was assured I would have it 2 days before the flight left).  Leo Cosenza (California Polo - the host club) was there waiting for us and solving problems as they came up. Leo had almost all the answers. He made sure everything went the way it was supposed to. Great Job Leo! It was great the way you convinced the ticket agent to get us on the plane.

We  flew to Lima, Peru, then Santiago, Chile, then hopped over the Andes Mountains to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Left at 12:15 noon and arrived at 9:15 AM the next day after 17 hours flying time. Buenos Aires is 5 hours ahead of San Diego. We drove 45 minutes to the Polo Ranch, had lunch (played) 4 chukkers of polo, then (took) one hour to see the owner's son play in a Polo Tournament. He is a six goal player going to either 7 or 8 the first of the year.

Back to the Polo Ranch for a 9 PM supper. Then, sitting around swapping  stories with polo players from Holland and New Zealand. Louise Mayer (Huntington Beach) & Scott Lane were there from Fresno. They won last year and he liked it so well he came back for 10 days. The owner & his wife were there.(I went to bed at 11:30 each night and got up at 7 AM. The cook arrived at 8, we had breakfast at 9 and played Polo. By 10:30 we were off to Palermo to watch the quarter final games Saturday and Sunday. We saw some extremely exciting polo. There were two wrecks with neither horse hurt, but one player hauled to the hospital on Saturday while the other one walked away fine.

The Argentina Open has teams rated from 28 - 38goals. We saw several different styles of polo. Mike Azzaro from the USA (10 goals) played extremely well against Alfonso Cambiaso (10 goals & considered the worlds best). Edwardo Heguy (10 goals) did well in his game but plays defensively where the others attack and attack. These three players took most to their teams pentaly shots and were hitting the balls 150 plus yards in the air and scoring. 

We saw Bob Harmon, Carlucho Arellano (with Billy on the FIP Team) Denny Geiler and several others there, all having great fun. Diego our host took Mark & me to talk to Alfonso. No problem with attitude there.

Monday more of the same, great food, four chukkers of polo, looking at what polo gear we needed to buy, then hop on the plane for the return 17 hour flight. Anyone wanting more details let me know. We all had a great time and want to thank everyone for making it happen.

This article was submitted by Russ Sheldon rsheldon@mcmillin.com