Apr 28, 2017
Five teams will compete during the two-day tournament held at Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, Florida. Two opening round games are scheduled for Friday, April 28.
Newport opens play against Dutta Corp at 11:00am ET. Dutta Corp is coming off their spring season-opening tournament win over Whitehall Ranch. Later on in the afternoon, Clearwater/La Indiana, Whitehall Ranch and Power Horse will play a round-robin at 4:30pm ET. Clearwater/La Indiana plays Whitehall Ranch with the winner sitting out and Power Horse playing the final six chukkers.
On Sunday April 30, a doubleheader featuring two championship finals will be held. The Grand Champions Cup is 9:45am ET and USPA Eastern Challenge is 11:00am ET. Admission is free and the public is welcome. The field features some of the sport's top players including Alejandro Novillo Astrada, Jeff Hall, Julio Arellano and Nic Roldan.
The team rosters are:
Newport
Gene Goldstein
Grant Ganzi
Julio Arellano, Carlitos Gracida.
Dutta Corp
Tim Dutta
Timmy Dutta
Kris Kampsen
Piki Diaz Alberdi.
Clearwater/La Indiana
Michael Bickford
Chip Campbell
Ezequiel Fernandez
Jeff Hall
Whitehall Ranch
Bill Lane
Pablo Pulido
Nic Roldan
Guille Aguero.
Power Horse
Melissa Ganzi/Walter Scherb
Marc Ganzi
Alejandro Novillo Astrada
Jesse Bray
The last time the USPA Eastern Challenge was held at Grand Champions was in 2015 when Casablanca (Grant Ganzi, Juancito Bollini, Wes Finlayson, Nic Roldan) held off Dutta Corp (Timmy Dutta, Carlitos Gracida, Kris Kampsen, Guille Aguero), 11-10. Bollini was named MVP.
The USPA Eastern Challenge is the second of six medium-goal tournaments offered in April and May as the GCPC Spring Invitational League. Other spring tournaments are: May 5-7, USPA Sun Cup; May 12-14, Spring Challenge Cup; May 19-21, Polo Gear Invitational and May 26-29, The Memorial.
During the Grand Champions' spring season, amateur polo players get the chance to play with and against some of the world's top professional polo players including former 10-goaler Piki Diaz Alberdi, Alejandro Novillo Astrada, Jeff Hall, Brandon Phillips, Jesse Bray, Julio Arellano, Kris Kampsen, Guille Aguero, Nic Roldan, Juan Bollini and Jesse Bray. It is geared toward improving polo skills and having fun.
"We are focusing on the game and concentrating on giving everyone an opportunity to play polo and improve their game," said Polo School Director and former 8-goaler Juan Bollini. "Marc and Melissa (Ganzi) have opened Grand Champions to anybody in polo. We have great tournaments here. We are really trying to make polo better in America. We want to show the world we can have the best polo for everyone."
All USPA Eastern Challenge games will be livestreamed on chukkertv.com
Effective Date: Saturday, May 16, 2020
The suspension of USPA Tournaments and Events will be lifted for USPA Member Clubs in locales where hosting polo matches and tournaments is permitted under applicable state and local laws, executive orders and similar decrees. The USPA Member Clubs in these locales are encouraged to follow all such requirements of their state and local authorities with respect to polo operations. In addition, we also encourage all USPA Member Clubs to take the precautions recommended by the CDC. We are preparing a detailed list of best practices for USPA Member Clubs as they return to hosting USPA Tournaments and Events and plan to circulate these guidelines within the next week. We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely and will notify you if we determine a different course of action is necessary.
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