Former Maple Leafs Darcey Tucker and Curtis Joseph Practice at Polo

Taking on the challenge of a new sport, former Toronto Maple Leaf favorites Curtis Joseph along with Darcy Tucker are taking a crash course in Polo to play in an exhibition Polo event at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair Horse Show on the afternoon of Saturday November 5th.

Joining the two superstars will be hall of famer Daryll Sittler along with Mark Messier.

The teams will be captained by former 9 goal arena Polo player Dave Offen and the President of the Toronto Polo Club  Cliff Sifton.

The players have being practicing under the direction of Polo Management Services Brian O’Leary and Foxden Farms manager David Wayne.

Practices are held Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2pm at either Foxden or Bancroft Farms depending on weather conditions .

For ticket information for the exhibition game go to www.royalfair.org

Cannacord - Dave Offen , Cody Offen, Peter Kirby.

Highly Competitive Polo was on display at Bancroft farms ourdoor arena last weekend is a series of High Goal games hosted by Polo Management Services and The Toronto Polo Club.

The first game of the day featured the top junior teams of Highland Chev Cadillac  vs VRG Capital. These young players put on a tremendous display of their skills in a hard fought game in which VRG took an early lead and the Highland team battled back only to come up short at the end.

In the feature game the Cannacord Wealth Management Team  of Scott Weir , Brendon Stenzil and Peter Kirby came up against the Rivendell Team featuring Arena Legend Dave Offen along with Cody Offen and Peter Kirby.

At the end of the first chukker Cannacord held a 3-2 lead, the second chukker was a great display of defence by both teams with  Dave Offen and Brendon Stenzil defending their goals in this scoreless chukker,in the third Chukker Peter Kirby and Dave Offen opened up the game with Offen scoring a 2 point shot with an offside open back shot  200 feet from the goal giving Cannacord a 7-4 lead going into the final Chukker. Rivendell came out blazing in the final chukker with goals from all of their players, and not to be outdone by his former mentor Scott Weir tied the game up also with an offside open back shot tieing the game at 7-7. One more goal from Rivendell and some near misses from Cannacord and the game ended in an 8-7 victory in favour of Rivendell.

Over $17,000 was raised for The Canadian Polo Association which Treasurer Dave Offen told the crowd would be used for training and clinics and raising awareness of polo throughout Canada.

Rivendell Polo - Scott Weir ,Brendon Stenzil ,Andrew Rivkin.

Starting at 3pm the first game will be an All Star Junior Game featuring some of Canada’s up and coming  Polo stars of the future .

The main event will feature former 9 goal arena star Dave Offen along with 5 goalers Scott Weir and Brendan Stenzil and Mike Sifton.

Following the games  the end of season player awards will be held at the Polo Shack .

Ticket prices are $25 and includes games and an Argentine Asado (BBQ) . Public are welcomePolo Canada Invite

The group under invitation from company President Libby Wildman were collected by helicopter at The Island Airport and flown to The Toronto Polo Clubs  Alliston facility where Polo Management Services treated them to an afternoon of Polo training and riding .

The group then watched the Finals of the Canada Day Cup which proved to be a thrilling Polo game and were then hosted at the Willow Farm North Polo barn by Derek Watchorn and Mike Egan.

To close off the onfield events a genuine Argentine Asado was served to the group complimented by Argentine Malbec wines.

As the sun was beginning to set the group headed back to thier helicopters for a return journey to the city.

Many thanks to Kingsley Ward of VRG Capital and the staff of Polo Management Services for making this day possible .

The rains were so heavy that even the allweather outdoor arena was unusable due to saturation .However , the complex is equipped with two indoor arenas and the first was used in the morning for work with the foot mallets and wooden horse training the other arena in the afternoon for riding instruction and a scrimmage.

All of the participants did extremely well and managed to stay atop the horses even in their Polo Game .

The next One Day Introduction Clinic is on July 9th for further information contact brian at 416 891 7529

The regulation 6 chukker game ended up in a 8-8 tie after Willow Farm came back from a 4 goal deficit to even the game in the final chukker.

In the two sudden death overtime periods both teams shot wide on open goals on a number of occasions but heavy defending otherwise kept the ball out of the goal . In the eight chukker Willow Farm had a throw in at the Polo Management goal line but 14 year old Evan White in his first 10 goal tournament won the throw in and in a great example of team play the ball passed between all four players  from one end of the field to the other until Robert Stenzils neck shot found the goal.

Final score 9-8 .

The Polo Management team consisted of Evan White , Evan White jnr, Robert Stenzil and Brian O’Leary

The Willow Farm Polo team line up  was Mike Egan , Majahaja of Jaipur, Martine Ortiz and Queco Dupont.

The Founders Cup was first Present by Maureen White in 1995 in recognition of the founders of the then Upper Canada Polo Club and is played for on an annual basis

This is the third time the combination of Evan White and Brian O’Leary have won the Founders Cup with both having won it a record six times .

This weeks games will be held in conjunction with Polo For Heart . For more information go to www.poloforheart.org for details on what promises to be an exciting weekend of International Polo.

Maureen White Presents The Founders Cup to the Polo Management Team

The Royal Jaipur Polo Team along with international teams and players from the USA , Mexico ,Argentina and Ireland will compete from Friday the 16th thru to Sunday . Two games daily at 1pm and 3pm .

Polo Management Services will be donating Ponies for use to many of the international guests.

Nacho Figueras will play in Toronto on June 17th and 18th

For further information go to www.poloforheart.org

Final Day Of Spring Season At Arena

In what has been the wettest Spring in recent memory the Toronto Polo Club finally gets to play on the grass fields this evening.

Last night games at the Bancroft Arena had twenty players out looking to prepare their horses for the main fields. The parking lot was to capacity with trailers and games were held at 5pm 6pm and 7pm to facilitate the numbers .

Finally on the last day (officially) of the outdoor arena season , the sun shone and the club members and guests enjoyed the views with some cocktails on the deck .

To watch Club Polo or any tournaments call the TPC hotline at 905 888 7656 . Games are played Tuesday and Thursdays at the Foxden fields and Saturdays and Sundays from noon in Alliston .

For lessons clinics or information on how to play Polo , contact Brian at 416 891 7529 .

The arena has been open for practices and playable since early April but due to the inclement weather regular club play was delayed.

The Toronto Polo Club Schedule will be for games on Saturdays starting from Noon and on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5pm.

The Polo Shack will be open on game days for socializing

and the store is fully restocked with mallets , bridles, saddles and all required  polo needs .

Visitors are always welcome.

The group headed by Christine O’Reilly spent the morning viewing Polo videos and then TPC Instructors David Wayne and Brian O’Leary worked with the group on hitting techniques using foot mallets .

After the introduction to the wooden horses the group was joined by Interscholastic Coach Scott Weir whose teams have won multiple North American titles. Scott worked with the players on their hitting platforms and the group then took a well earned lunch break .

The afternoon session consisted of Polo riding lessons ,hitting instruction on the horses and then the group divided into teams and played a series of games .

Guelph Students Try Polo

All of the equestrian group were accomplished riders and enjoyed the skill of their Polo ponies which were provided by Polo Management Services .

A happy group of newly christened polo players retired to the club room and promised to come back for more.