A Y E A R in the L i f e of
Top American
POLO
Player
Nic Roldan
2017 Great Futures Polo day in aid of the Boys
January:
As always the new year coincides with the
start of the new high-goal season in Wellington,
Florida (Nic’s home town) and playing
as part of a young Grand Champions Team
together with Grant Ganzi, Juan Bollini (h)
and Ignacio Laprida. They went on to reach
the semi-finals, but alas that is where their
campaign ended in the Joe Barry Cup. A
great start to an exciting season. Nic was
thrilled that two of his four-legged wards
won “Best Playing Pony” awards this month,
both are OTTB’s: Cubana and Molly.
Towards the end of January Nic had a
unique opportunity to go to Gulfstream
Park to see California Chrome train and
meet him afterwards, highlighting the use
of OTTB’s in polo. A tremendous privilege
indeed.
February:
The season in Palm Beach continued with
many games and preparations for various
charity events. Nic attended such the Polo
Hall of Fame dinner which saw one of Nic’s
friends, Mariano Aguerre, inducted. February
also saw Nic design his own blend of tea
together with English tea growers Tregothnan
and so the “Sunset Polo” blend of tea
was born.
March:
March was a busy month both on and
off the fields. The season goes up a
gear and the focus moves from 20-goal
to 26-goal, the highest level played
in the U.S. Nic also played in one of
the Gladiator polo tournments at the
Intern’l Equestrian Centre Palm Beach,
a new interpretation of arena polo.
March also saw Nic take part in the
and Girls Clubs of the Palm Beaches, as well
as his very own Nic Roldan’s Sunset Polo &
White Party event in aid of Brooke USA, a
charity to which he is an ambassador. A big
part of Nic’s brand is his genuine nature so
he spends a great deal of time working on
this event as oppose to just putting his name
on it.
April:
The culmination of the Palm Beach season
with the $100,000 World Cup at the Grand
Champions Polo Club, the US Open Polo
Championships at the International Polo
Club and with the team Nic played on
winning the Hall of Fame Cup. After all that
Nic’s ponies earned a well deserved rest in
the blue pastures of Kentucky.
May:
The first days of May Nic crossed the pond
to the UK, where he was based for 3 months
at the Cowdray Estate in West Sussex, the
home of British Polo. On arrival Nic made a
beeline for his favourite place to have lunch
in Midhusrt and ordered his preferred meal
of a Tuna Jacket potato. The season could
now start but not before a photoshoot and
interview the following day for a top British
lifestyle magazine.
38 www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com
In the UK Nic played as part of the La Indiana
team, together with Michael Bickford,
Agustin Merlos and Luke Tomlinson. However,
just before the high-goal season started
there Nic was honoured to once more have
the opportunity to play in a game together
with Prince William and Prince Harry.
It was a great start to the season with La Indiana
playing 4 games in a row undefeated
in the Trippetts Challenge Cup and at the
end of the month the Queen’s Cup started
at the Guards Polo Club. In-between Nic
also had the chance to do a track day at
the nearby Goodwood Motor Circuit and
realised perhaps he preferred four-legged
horse power!
June:
La Indiana continued on flying form and
for the second year reached the final of
the Queen’s Cup, one of the most coveted
t’ments in the world. Just as in 2016 La Indiana
would face the world’s best polo player
Adolfo Cambiaso in the final and once
more lady luck was not on our side with
Cambiaso scoring the winning goal with
a handful of seconds left on the clock. So
close, yet so far, however, HRH the Queen
was at hand to present the trophies. June
also saw Nic’s horse carers being selected
for the “Grooms of the Month” award at the
Guards Polo Club for the turn out of Nic’s
string of ponies.
There was not much time to lick ones
wounds as four days after the final is was
the date of Nic’s Inaugural UK Sunset Polo
event. It is highly unlikely that any of the 800
guests realised that this was Nic’s “baby”
and he was the one who chose flatware,
lobbied participants and truly made this
event happen together with his team. To
see the venue appear out of nowhere was
immensely satisfying and the event brought
together various members of the Equestrian
Elite, including Eventing’s William Fox-Pitt,
top British Reiner Tammy Greaves, the Yoda
of Natural Horsemanship Monty Roberts himself
and not to be forgotten Show Jumping’s
Scott Brash who seemed to have found a
new discipline as he rocketed from never
having held a polo mallet until five minutes
prior to his polo debut to scoring 3 goals in
his game?!
July:
July saw all focus on the British Open Polo
Championships for the Gold Cup played
at Cowdray Park. An initial loss against last
year’s winner, followed by three wins a row,
placed La Indiana in the quarter-finals. Here
there was quite the upset when La Indiana
found themselves beaten. After a spat of
injuries of both players and ponies this would
not be their year. Having been knocked out
Nic was asked to help judge a
competition to determine the best
OTTB polo pony during the semi-finals,
which was fun. The final of the Gold
Cup itself proved a real “only in
Britain” moment as we found our-
Jan 17: Nic
visits the boys
& girls club in
Wellington
Jan 18:
Miami Beach
World Cup
/www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com