The 2012 polo season will feature a record number of teams for the 20-goal season and ESPN3 exposure.
Seventeen teams will compete during the 20-goal tournament season that opens on Sunday with the Herbie Pennell Cup at International Polo Club Palm Beach, the sport’s winter capital of the world.
It’s the most teams in club history to compete during the winter high goal season, now entering its ninth season at IPC.
Wellington polo 2012 welcomes a record number of teams for 20-goal season
By Sharon Robb
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012
“It’s just amazing,” said Jimmy Newman, director of polo operations Wednesday during IPC’s kickoff polo media luncheon at The Field Side Pavilion.
“From Day One we said we were going to have good fields and these fields are great,” Newman said. “This is where you come to play if you want to get serious. The 20-goal has become the heart of all of this.”
Four 20-goal tournaments are scheduled. Sixteen teams, including five new teams, will compete in the Ylvisaker Cup, making it the largest tournament in IPC history. The previous high was 15 at the U.S. Open. “I’m really proud of that,” Newman said. “It shows me we are headed in the right direction.”
The five new teams are Heathcote, Valiente II, Villa de Lago, Circa and Metaltek. Villa de Lago, Circa and Metaltek move up from 14-16 goal play.
There are three 26-goal tournaments - the C.V. Whitney, Piaget Gold Cup and 108th U.S. Open, which has a new title sponsor for at least the next two years.
Nespresso, entering its fifth year as a major polo sponsor, will be the title sponsor for the 2012 U.S. Open, March 28-April 22 as well as the 2013 event.
Another new title sponsor is Royal Salute, which will lend its name to the C.V. Whitney Cup.
Eleven teams, including defending U.S. Open champion Lechuza Caracas, will compete during the 26-goal tournament season. For the first time, U.S. Open runner-up Audi will compete in both the 20- and 26-goal tournaments. Piaget, Pony Express and Orchard Hill also will compete in the 20-goal tournaments after a three-year hiatus.
ESPN3 will broadcast all three 26-goal tournaments. For the third consecutive year, Prime Time Polo will provide tape-delay coverage on Mondays, beginning Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. on Comcast channels 17 and 438 and will continue through the U.S. Open finals.
Nine 9-goal ranked players (10 is the top ranking) will compete during the 20-goal season and at least eight of the world’s 12 10-goal rated players, including Adolfo Cambiaso, Facundo Pieres and Sapo Caset, will compete during the 26-goal season.
On Sunday, Coca Cola, led by 9-goaler Julio Arellano, a Cardinal Newman and Florida Atlantic University alum who has played for 30 years in Wellington, will take on Villa del Lago, led by 8-goaler Magoo Laprida, for the Herbie Pennell Cup on the International Field at 3 p.m.
“I grew up here and played my first tournament here 30 years ago,” said Arellano, the highest- rated U.S. player this season. “I haven’t missed a season. ”
Pennell, one of the nation’s top indoor polo players, is being inducted posthumously into the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame on Feb. 17 in Lake Worth.
Another local U.S. player, Kris Kampsen will make his debut with Orchard Hill this season during the 20-goal season.
