Challenging Chukker

It was the battle of the bridled behemoths at the Santa Barbara Polo Club when former president Dan Walker‘s Farmers & Merchants Bank team took on current president Texan tycoon John Muse‘s Lucchese team for the 110-year-old Silver Air Pacific Coast Open trophy, the most prestigious tournament on the Left Coast.

With a record 4,000 people watching from the packed stands, Dan hoisted the impressive five-foot-high silver and gold trophy, crowned with an eagle, for the second time, having also been victorious two years ago, after a truly nail biting match that was only decided in the final minutes of the sixth chukker, with his team winning 9-8.

Lucchese, four-time winners including a three-peat between 2010 and 2012 with Argentinian 10-goal player Adolfo Cambiaso in the lineup, led convincingly at half time, 5-2, but Dan’s team, featuring Santiago Toccalino, an 8-goal player who had been flown in at last minute from Buenos Aires to replace Felipe Vercellino, who had a knee injury that required surgery in his native Chile, really came alive with Toccalino, match MVP, scoring six goals in total, three of them in the final chukker.

“It is unusual in the world of polo to change a player and continue to support a winning team,” says Dan. “I consider it very unusual to change multiple players, as we have done since June, and continue to win.

“Our evaluation for this good luck is horses and a playing system that is accepted by the players.”

It was a helluva match and the undoubted highlight of the high goal season.