Marc Ganzi’s Audi team didn’t lose a game all summer during the high-goal season at Santa Barbara Polo Club in Carpinteria, California. The high-goal season began July 25 with the Robert Skene Trophy, followed by the USPA America Cup and culminated with the Pacific Coast Open final on September 7. Seven teams competed in the Skene tournament, while Zacara joined as an eighth team for the America Cup and Pacific Coast Open.

TAudi was led by 9-goal Gonzalo Pieres Jr. wearing the No. 3 shirt, 7-goal Sugar Erskine in front of him, 1-goal Ganzi out front, and 3-goal Gonzalo del Tour at Back. Ganzi and his family have made Santa Barbara their summer home for the past four years. Wife Melissa also plays and competed this year with her Grand Champions/Klentner Ranch team.

Marc Ganzi said he started thinking about building a team for 2008 in the summer of 2007 while watching the competition and discussed it with Pieres that fall. “... It was clear to us that some of the teams had gotten competitive. Piocho was really strong, had great horses. Lyndon Lea’s Zacara team was really powerful. We said, ‘Gee, if you are going to drive halfway across the country you really have to come with a strong team, and we have to pick guys that are going to help complement the two of us and figure out how to put a team on the field that is going to be balanced.’”

Last winter they started putting a list of possible players together. They tried out a few 3- and 4-goal players and played with them throughout April and May before deciding on del Tour. “Our game plan was always to find the player that complemented Sugar and Gonzalito and was willing to work for those two guys and, if given the opportunity, would be dynamic with the ball as well. ... I found with Sugar in particular and Gonzalito, they were always positive with del Tour. They never got upset at him.

They always told him ‘Good job, next play.’ If he made a bad play, he wouldn’t be stressed out because his teammates weren’t down on him. ... They had total trust in him to make the decision to make the play so [he] never felt second-guessed. He said for the first time in his career he was on a team where everyone believed in him ...”

Having lots of confidence worked for del Tour. He was playing so well other teams started grumbling about his handicap not being high enough and wanting to see it raised mid-season. USPA officials observed him play and determined that although he was playing well, he was fairly handicapped.

Ganzi says:, “The battle cry for raising his handicap gave us a purpose. ... We were there to win ... but other teams were clearly trying to distract us. It only made us more focused and brought us closer together as a team. We stood behind him and didn’t raise a stink about it. Our strategy was be quiet, go out and play polo, and the rest of the stuff will work itself out. If it was meant to be, he’ll stay on his handicap. If it wasn’t meant to be we’ll deal with the situation if it comes.”

Once the lineup was set, the focus was on the horses. No team has been able to win all three high-goal events since 1982, when it was played at the 18-goal level. A major factor is having enough horses to make it through all three events. With that in mind, Ganzi made sure Gonzalito and he would have enough horses so “if we got too deep in August and we sustained at least two or three injuries, we would [still] be able to show up to the final with six or seven horses each. ... You are going to take your lumps and bruises, but you want your strings at the end of August, one, to be peaking; and two, to have sufficient power and with sufficient backups that you can show up to the final and not have to play [just] three horses.”

The team played certain horses a little more in the beginning and others they saved for the end, which were some of their best. By the time the last tournament rolled around, the best horses would be fresh and able to play a chukker or a chukker and a half. “We had to resist spending all of our horse power up front,” explained Ganzi. “It was quantity, quality and the discipline of not playing some of the top horses the first two tournaments.” The team also chose to change horses during each chukker so no horse played a full chukker. Ganzi also said the crisp, cool California night air and low humidity helped the horses recover quicker and be more comfortable.

With both Ganzi and his wife, Melissa, each having a team competing, they had to create a few rules. “The first and most simple rule was to make the horse list early, decide whose horses were which and assign grooms to those horses so there is a clear division of labor and which horses play on which team,” said Ganzi. “The second thing we did was put the teams in different barns so we had the Audi team on one side of the club and Grand Champions on the other side of the club.”

The players also worked on getting fit. Ganzi explains: “I started working with a strength and fitness trainer who works for the Dolphins and NFL. ... [Melissa] wanted to change the way we trained. Some of the traditional training for polo is aerobic and weights and we are doing something that is very different. We are spending a lot of time creating flexibility in the saddle and a lot of speed, quickness and agility. Being more flexible in the saddle is crucial and has helped my polo.”

Ganzi also spent time playing casual polo in the fall and spring at his home club, Grand Champions, which he says helped his polo immeasurably. He was able to play practice games three or four days a week on good fields with good players in a friendly environment, which allowed him to try different plays and work on his skills.

With all the organization set, the team set its sights on the season highlight—the Pacific Coast Open. Audi wanted to do well all season, but the last tournament was their focus. The team played its first match in the Robert Skene Trophy against Long Beach, whom it managed to slip 11-10. Audi had an easier go its next game against Lucchese, handily beating it 15-9. The team’s 16-12 win over Piocho Ranch ensured a spot in the final against Grant’s Farm.

Grant’s Farm edged ERG 10-9 in overtime in its first outing, received a second-round bye and topped Grand Champions 10-8 to earn its final spot. Grant’s Farm had Frederick Mannix, Jeff Hall, Andy Busch and the 18-year-old Cachi Garcia-Velez.

In the final, Pieres got the scoring underway with a Penalty 3 conversion. Mannix responded with an easy Penalty 2. Del Tour ended the first with a field goal. Both teams scored in the second to keep it close, and Audi took a two-goal advantage in the third after scoring three while holding Grant’s Farm to a pair of Penalty 2 conversions. Audi edged further ahead in the fourth after Pieres scored on a trio of Penalty 2s while holding Hall and Mannix to one apiece. Pieres turned up the pressure in the fifth, scoring the only four goals. Down by seven going into the final period, Grant’s Farm made a last-ditch effort and managed to score three while holding Audi to just one, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit, and Audi took home the trophies.

Gonzalito Pieres, who scored 11 of his team’s 15 goals, was named most valuable professional player. Amateur MVP went to Ganzi, and his Pampa was honored as best playing pony-amateur. Erskine’s Ana Nova took best playing pony-pro.

The USPA America Cup began the following weekend. Audi won the first game of the tournament against Lucchese, 15-13. Two days later Audi was up against Melissa Ganzi’s Grand Champions/Klentner Ranch team. Audi also took that 15-13 before downing Piocho 14-10, clinching a spot in the final.

The other final spot was taken by Zacara, defending champions of the Pacific Coast Open. Zacara came on strong, first soundly defeating ERG 13-7, then edging Grant’s Farm 11-10 in overtime before ousting Long Beach 14-10.

Ganzi says: “Zacara was a team we had a lot of respect for. You always have to respect the team that is defending champion. We felt they were extremely well-organized. Lyndon [Lea] has put together an impressive string of horses and Javier [Novillo Astrada] played extremely well all summer. Santi Torres is going to be a great player. He was another young kid playing well above his handicap. That’s another team that is a four-player team. All four of those players know how to play. We felt that was the target.”

Though Pieres put the first goal on the board in the final, Zacara quickly answered with two. The teams traded goals in the second, but Zacara took control in the third with five goals to Audi’s one. Trailing 8-3 going into the second half, Audi cut its deficit with four Pieres goals while holding Novillo Astrada to two. A calm Audi shifted the momentum in the fifth with four unanswered goals to take the lead. Audi’s defense held off any Zacara attempts, while Pieres knocked through a Penalty 3 conversion to hold onto the lead and take the hard-fought victory.

Ganzi says: “That game really defined our season. That was the finest 20-goal game I have ever been involved in—great horsepower, great players, a great game, very few fouls, very open, very fast. It was the most satisfying victory I have had in polo. ... All four players played extremely well in the first half. It forced us to dig deep and have an answer for it. ... It gave us incremental confidence going into the PCO.”

The Pacific Coast Open began the following week. Audi was pitted against Grand Champions/Klentner Ranch in the first game. Ganzi says: “Our team was a bit nervous to play them because you are playing against your own organization basically. ... [they] were people we’d see at the barn, dinner, the gym. You live with them, so to go out and compete against them is more difficult than having to compete against another team.”

Audi downed Long Beach 15-12, Piocho 14-10, then crushed ERG 16-9, earning a spot in the semifinal. They would have to get by Lucchese one more time. Lucchese earned its spot after topping ERG 13-12, Grand Champions/Klentner Ranch 17-14 and Long Beach 15-14.

The other semifinal pitted the runners-up from the first two tournaments: Grant’s Farm and Zacara. Grant’s Farm downed Piocho 14-10, Grand Champions/Klentner Ranch 21-7 and Long Beach 13-12, while taking its only defeat from ERG, 9-11. Zacara stomped Long Beach 15-8, Piocho 17-9 and Grand Champions/Klentner Ranch 15-7 but also was beaten by ERG 7-8.

Lucchese managed to run with Audi through the first half, down by just a goal at 5-4. Audi turned up the heat in the fourth with four goals, while holding Lucchese to two. Lucchese came up empty in the fifth, while Audi hammered in three. Lucchese attempted a comeback in the final period but couldn’t make up the six-goal deficit, and Audi advanced to the final.

In the other semifinal Zacara took an early 3-0 lead in the first and held a 5-4 lead at the half. It maintained the one-goal advantage into the fifth, when Grant’s Farm took the lead thanks in part to a pair of Penalty 2 conversions. Grant’s Farm scored another three in the final period before Zacara could find the uprights, but it ran out of time and Grant’s Farm took the win.

In the final, Audi took a quick 3-0 lead, but Grant’s Farm caught up in the second to tie the match at 4. The teams traded goals in the third, ending the half at 6. The real test was to come as the strength of a team’s string usually shows in the second half of the last game of the season. The teams swapped open-goal penalties in the fourth to remain tied, but Audi slipped ahead in the fifth with field goals by Pieres and del Tour. Audi switched to turbo in the final chukker as the team scored three in a row, two from Erskine and one from Pieres to race ahead by four. With time winding down, Hall scored, but it wasn’t enough and Audi won yet again.

Best playing pony-pro was Erskine’s Shell Rock, while best playing pony-amateur went to Andy Busch’s Perla. Ganzi and Pieres won most valuable player-amateur and -pro, respectively. Gonzalo del Tour was honored with the Robert Skene Award for Most Valuable Player of the entire season, which is voted on by all the players in the event and is based on playing ability and sportsmanship. Ganzi says: “I’m most proud [of] the culmination of hard work between Melissa and myself to build an organization that can compete at the highest level. ... It was validation that if you work hard and do the right thing and build a solid organization inside of polo, you are going to be successful in the high-goal.”