In upset, Valiente falls to Daily Racing Form
WELLINGTON — In one of the biggest upsets in U.S. Open history, Daily Racing Form knocked off defending and undefeated champion Valiente 10-9 to win the 114th U.S. Open Sunday at rainsoaked International Polo Club Palm Beach.
The first-year team of cousins Agustin Obregon and Mariano Obregon, 10-goaler Hilario Ulloa and Jared Zenni, making its U.S. Open final debut, snapped Valiente’s 17-game winning streak and denied the powerhouse its second consecutive Triple Crown, North America’s crown jewel in polo. Daily Racing Form finished the U.S. Open with a 4-0 record. Valiente dropped to 3-1 with its first loss of the season.
Zenni, a senior at the University of Miami and Team USPA member, was named Most Valuable Player. Millenaria, played by Mariano Obregon, was Best Playing Pony.
“We knew we could do it,” Zenni said. “That was the game of our lives. It was our day.”
Earlier in the season, Daily Racing Form led Valiente for four chukkers before losing. This time, with more horsepower and coach Julio Arellano, the team was able to dominate the game with a relentless defense that frustrated 10-goalers Adolfo Cambiaso and Facundo Pieres for most of the game.
Daily Racing Form led by as many as three goals in the
third chukker, 6-3. Early in the fifth chukker, Ulloa was hit with a ball on the right side of his safety glasses. The impact left a deep gash on the right side of his eye. After being treated by a trainer, he returned to the game.
Arellano said he told the team not to let up or allow a momentum shift after the injury timeout. “They listened and have done everything that I told them,” he said. “They have put the time in, gotten better and better and had the faith. They did it.”
When play resumed after the injury timeout, Agustin Obregon, despite being chased by Cambiaso and Pieres, scored on a nearside neck shot for a 7-5 lead.
In the sixth chukker, Daily Racing Form maintained its two-goal advantage with an incredible angled goal shot 90 yards in the air for a 10-8 lead. Valiente came within one goal at the 3:23 mark when Pieres scored his sixth goal on a 30-yard penalty conversion. In the last 1:22, Cambiaso and Pieres had chances to tie the game but fell short.
“I couldn’t see too well in the last two chukkers and I didn’t play too well, but the team was playing so well, just amazing,” said Ulloa, whose horses were named best string for the 2018 season. “This is really unbelievable.”
Ulloa led the scoring with five goals in the first four chukkers. Zenni and Mariano Obregon each had two and Agustin Obregon added one. Pieres had six goals for Valiente and Cambiaso added two. Beresford had one.
Daily Racing Form was 8 of 19 in field-shot conversions, Valiente 6 of 13. DRF converted 2 of 2 penalties, Valiente 3 of 4. DRF dominated the throw-ins won, 15-7, including 9-1 in the first half. DRF led in fouls, 12-3.
Valiente won the C.V. Whitney Cup and USPA Gold Cup 26-goal tournaments, the first two legs of the Triple Crown and was riding a winning streak that dated back to the Ylvisaker Cup.
It was the final time for at least three years the U.S. Open will be contested at the 26-goal level. In an attempt to help the growth of polo, the U.S. Polo Association voted to move IPC’s tournaments from 20-26 goals to 18-22 goals for a threeyear period (2019-2021). The World Polo League already has been formed by team patrons Marc and Melissa Ganzi and Bob Jornayvaz to help fill the void for 26-goal tournaments beginning in February 2019.
On Saturday in the subsidiary Museum of Polo Hall of Fame Cup, Colorado defeated Audi, 12-9.
‘We knew we could do it. That was the game of our lives. It was our day.’ Jared Zenni
Daily Racing Form