C.V. Whitney Cup

Park Place, winners of The C.V. Whitney Cup

Photograph by @globalpolo/@agusfondapl

Park Place

Retain Title C.V. Whitney Cup

The Gauntlet of Polo sees some of the best players compete over three months for three prestigious titles, The C.V. Whitney Cup, The USPA Gold Cup and The U.S. Open Polo Championship. The C.V. Whitney Cup is the first of the three tournaments and was first played for in 1979 when it was originally known as The U.S. Handicap; the tournament was renamed in 1988 after C.V. (Cornelius Vanderbilt ‘Sonny’) Whitney, a keen polo player and three-time winner of the U.S. Open in 1928, 1937 and 1938, and son of 10-goal Hall of Famer Harry Payne Whitney. The C.V. Whitney was originally played at Retama Polo Center in San Antonio, Texas, but since 2003 it has been hosted at International Polo Club Palm Beach (IPC) in Wellington, Florida.

Last year saw Park Place push the Final into over-time against Scone, where they secured an 11-10 victory, and this year saw Park Place return to defend their title, battling their way through the qualifying rounds to face Scone once again. Going into the Final, Scone were undefeated, but Park Place’s 10 goaler, Hilario Ulloa, with three C.V. Whitney Cup wins under his belt (2010, 2013 and 2021) was on hand to lead Park Place to a win. Facing the father-son duo of Adolfo and Poroto Cambiaso, with Adolfo himself holding a record breaking seven C.V. Whitney Cup titles (1991, 1995, 1996, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018), so the Final promised to be an exhilarating clash.

7DEC

27 DEC FINAL

Where: International Polo Club Palm Beach

Poroto kicked off the scoring with back-to-back goals, however Ulloa swiftly responded and the rest of the chukka continued in a similar ilk with back and forth play. Going into the Final Scone were rated first in defence, while Park Place were ranked first for fouls committed per team, with fourteen per game in the tournament; this weakness was something Park Place were conscious of going into the Final, as Ulloa noted, “We had a lot of fouls against Coca-Cola and Pilot. That was the breaking point, we then put our focus on that. In our game against La Indiana in the Semi Finals we rallied to not give away easy penalties.” By half-time, Scone had managed to capitalise on all the opportunities that came their way to claim an 8-5 lead.

After some half-time analysis and a resolution to reduce their fouling, Park Place launched into the second half with seven unanswered goals, with Juan Britos efficiently navigating traffic to escort the ball through the post time after time. With strong communication and impressive horsepower, Park Place worked effectively together, with Cody Ellis adding his name to the scoreboard, backed up by follow up goals from Britos and Ulloa. As Britos later explained, “Scone is an amazing team with the quality of players they have. We were in a rush and having a hard time in the beginning. Once we slowed down and started playing more as a team, we made our shots.” Going into the final chukka Scone tried to reclaim their earlier offensive might, but trailing 13-11 and running out of time, they needed to act fast to turn the result around. Scone failed to move out of their defensive stance and a converted penalty by Britos secured the win, 14-11, for Park Place.

Photograph by @globalpolo/Alex Pacheco Juan Britos challenges Adolfo Cambiaso

C.V. Whitney Cup Final Teams

Park Place (23)

Josh Hyde (1) Juan Britos (9) Hilario Ulloa (10) Cody Ellis (3)

Scone (22)

David Paradice (0) Keko Magrini (3) Poroto Cambiaso (9) Adolfo Cambiaso (10)

Chukka Scores: (0-1) 3-1, 5-4, 8-5, 8-8, 12-10, 14-11 to Park Place

BPP MVP

Juan Britos

Photograph by @globalpolo/Alex Pacheco