The Farmers & Merchants Bank Silver Cup

17 JUL

7AUG FINAL

Where: Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, California

Success for

BenSoleimani.com

Jeff Hall’s tenth Silver Cup win

BenSoleimani.com (19)

Ben Soleimani (0) Lucas ‘Luckitas’ Criado Jr. (6) Ignacio ‘Iñaki’ Laprida (7) Jeff Hall (6)

L.E.N.Y. (18)

Santino Magrini (4) Paquito de Narvaez (3) Kristos ‘Keko’ Magrini (4) Matias Magrini (7)

MVP BPP

Jeff Hall

Open Kilovatio, owned by Ben Soleimani and played by Iñaki Laprida

On Sunday 7 August, BenSoleimani. com secured their first Farmers & Merchants Bank Silver Cup title at Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club (SBPRC) following a 10-13 win against L.E.N.Y. in the fifth chukka. Both teams had met earlier in the tournament which saw BenSoleimani. com narrowly take an 11-10 win and both teams had top scorers on their side with L.E.N.Y.’s Keko Magrini leading his team with 20 goals and BenSoleimani.com’s Lucas ‘Luckitas’ Criado Jr. entering the Final as the top scorer of the competition with 29 goals, so it was all to play for come Final’s Day. Criado had already played with team mate Jeff Hall throughout the 2022 Gauntlet of Polo for La Indiana, “I played with Jeff for the whole year, Iñaki has known me since I was a kid, and Ben the same, so we get along well and trust each other.” so this well acquainted side were certainly a force to be reckoned with.

L.E.N.Y. received a one goal handicap advantage and quickly made the most of it, with Magrini breaking away to increase L.E.N.Y.’s lead to 2-0, however BenSoleimani.com swiftly replied and took the lead and by half-time were ahead, 8-5.

Focusing on closing the gap, a field goal from Paquito de Narvaez cut L.E.N.Y.’s deficit to two, but three unanswered goals from Criado Jr. kept BenSoleimani.com firmly in control and by the start of the last chukka, BenSoleimani.com held a comfortable three goal lead, which they were able to build upon with a further goal from Laprida, which extinguished any hopes of a last-minute comeback by L.E.N.Y. This was Jeff Hall’s tenth Silver Cup win having also secured the title in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2014, 2020 and he was also named Most Valuable Player, Hall commented “A couple of years ago [2020] I got the ninth and broke the record of most wins, so today I broke my own record for double-digits, and it feels great!” Open Kilovatio, owned by Ben Soleimani and played by Laprida was the Best Playing Pony, Laprida commented, “He’s amazing [and] a really good horse, he’s big, but really handy for the size he has.”

Farmers & Merchants Bank Silver Cup winners, BenSoleimani.com