Miami Beach Polo A screaming Success
By Alex Webbe

In the most successful beach polo tournament weekend in its six year history, the AMG 2010 Miami Beach Polo World Cup and the AMG South Beach Women’s Challenge Cup set records for attendance, corporate participation and player response.

“This has been our most successful beach polo tournament to date,” said organizer Bruce Orosz of ACT Productions. “We’re thrilled with the response from not only our corporate partners but from the local and area communities as well.”

Thousands of spectators participated in the four day event that featured some of the world’s top polo players in hotly contested beach polo competition on the sands of Miami Beach between 21st and 22nd Streets.

Eight teams of women players converged on the beach on Thursday, April 22nd for the AMG South Beach Women’s Polo Cup in what has become one of the most popular polo tournaments in the country.

“It was the most fun I’ve ever had playing polo,” said Maryland’s Stephanie Kraml Suttle. The daughter of a polo player, Stephanie brought her two children to the beach with her this year as she picked up the game again after a hiatus of several years.

“This has been a spectacular weekend,” she beamed. “I can’t wait to come back next year.”
Music, cocktails and gourmet food were all part of the backdrop for the weekend’s tournaments. At the conclusion of the women’s competition, six men’s teams took to the sands featuring players of international repute.

Argentine polo player and Ralph Lauren model Nacho Figueras was joined on the AMG team by Pelon Escapite, a member of last year’s Mexican national team that played against the United States in the revered Camacho Cup series. America’s highest rated player, 9-goaler Nic Roldan was joined by Brandon Phillips on Simon Garber’s Morgan Stanley team, and Washington area residents Chet Lott and Mark Goode took to the field with teammates Matias Magrini and Guille Usandizaga on the 2010 championship Hublot team.

“I was honored to be a part of the AMG Miami Beach event and had the time of my life,” said Mark Goode. And his sentiments were echoed by participants and spectators alike. A busy social schedule kept the polo crowd moving from cocktail party to dinner party to concert throughout four days and nights of activities.

The AMG team of Sunny Hale, Ashley Van Metre and Lauren Gridley took top honors in the South Beach Women’s Polo Cup, downing Merchant Hub, 6-2, while the Panama Jack team of Angenita Grande, Tara Lordi and Angela York rode off with the sup in their division of play with a resounding 7-1 win over W Hotel.
Sunny Hale and Angela York were named MVP of their respective brackets of play. Angela York’s horse, Loon, was named Best Playing Pony

The Hublot team emerged as the winner of the AMG Miami Beach World Cup with an exciting 11-9 win over a talented AMG team. Bombay Sapphire scored an 11-6 win over The Setai to claim the prestigious Carl fisher International Challenge Cup, and Morgan Stanley snuck past Feretti, 5-3, to a win the Fleischmann Memorial Cup.

The thundering success of the 2010 AMG Miami Beach Polo World Cup and the AMG South Beach Women’s Polo Cup has participants, sponsors and spectators promising to return to the beach again next year.