WELLINGTON, Florida – The GlobalPort Polo team of Rep. Mikee Romero rallied from four goals down in the fourth chukker on Sunday to pull off an overtime victory over the favored La Dolfina/Catamount that sent the Filipino sportsman and his teammates to the semifinals of the prestigious C.V. Whitney Cup Polo championship at the National Polo Center here.
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The young Argentinian phenom Santos Merlos sprinted past a gauntlet of defenders to score the winning goal in overtime for a 15-14 victory and take the quartet to the semifinals against Coca-Cola on Wednesday.
The other semifinal will match Pilot against La Dolfina/Tamera. The semifinal winners will face off in the final match on Sunday.
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GlobalPort and Pilot, the only unbeaten teams in the tournament, qualified by topping their respective brackets with 2-0 records, while Coca-Cola and La Dolfina/Tamera qualified from Bracket 3 with 1-1 records.
La Dolfina is the 2024 US Open and US Gold Cup champions.
The Whitney Cup, organized by the US Polo Association, is the kickoff leg of a three-tournament series called the Gauntlet of Polo.
This series includes the USPA Gold Cup and the US Open Polo championship, which ends on April 20. Pilot is the only team to have swept the prestigious triple crown of polo.
Santos, a substitute with a 6-goal handicap, scored nine goals, including the winning score in overtime, to lead GlobalPort.
Bartolome Castagnola, the 10-goaler veteran from Argentina, scored five to add to his 11-goal collection in GlobalPort’s 15-10 win over defending champion Park Place on Feb 9.
In their opening match, Romero, the first Filipino to play in the series, delivered the key blow to Park Place with a breakaway goal from an assist by Castagnola.
That goal put Globalport beyond reach at 15-8 one minute into the sixth and final chukker.
Romero, a three-term congressman of 1-Pacman party list, thus became the first Filipino to score a goal in the event.
Picking up from where Castagnola left off in the first game, Santos kept GlobalPort in the thick of the fight in the first half of their second game, trailing only 7-8 in the third chukker.
But La Dolfina/Catamount threatened to pull away with four unanswered goals by 10-goaler Poroto Cambiaso, ending the fourth chukker at 12-8.
Santos, the young Argentinian 6-goaler, did his magic in the fifth chukker as Globalport closed the gap at 12-13 in a 5-1 romp that included a goal awarded from a dangerous foul.
Castagnola took over in the final chukker as La Dolfina/Catamount star Cambiaso’s long-range attempts went right and left of the goal posts. Cambiaso is the 2024 MVP in last year’s US Open.
Castagnola scored on a penalty with 2:04 left in the final chukker and won the throw-in from centerline for the breakaway that tied the score at 14 with 1:27 left.
In overtime, Santos showcased impressive horsemanship beyond his years.
He picked up the rebound from his missed assist, maneuvering past three defenders and sprinting down the right side to score the winning goal.
Called the “sport of kings,” polo is played outdoors or indoors by four players on horseback. They use mallets to advance the ball toward the opposing team’s goal posts.
Play is usually in six periods called chukkers, lasting seven minutes and 30 seconds each. Polo is believed to have originated in Persia between the 6th century BC and the 1st century AD to train elite cavalry soldiers.
It spread to Europe and reached the United States in the 1880s.
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Dominated by Europeans and Americans, polo became a passion in Argentina, which rose to dominance starting in the 1920s.
Argentina now has the most players with a 10-goal handicap, the maximum in the game.
Polo handicaps, which range from -2 to 10, are based on several factors, including horsemanship, knowledge of the game, experience, and sportsmanship. The better players have higher handicaps.
All three legs of the Gauntlet of Polo are handicap events where teams must have an aggregate handicap of 22 goals.