Photo: Pablo Ramírez/Cotterel Polo Farms
Summer finds Jejo Taranco enjoying polo in unique fashion. Surrounded by deers, mooses, lakes and mountains. And playing plenty and good quality polo, of course. Such an environment provides Cotterel Polo Ranch, at the breathtaking scenery of Idaho, were the Uruguayan spends the summer season.
“We play the season through June, July and August. The weather is great during the whole season. The summer is dry here”, says Taranco. “There are three spectacular pitches, two of them enormous, like Palermo, and a third one which is as good as the others but a bit smaller and is used for playing chukkers.”
-How much polo do you play?
-During the season there are six tournaments of 14-16 goals, depending on who the visitors are. Here in Cotterel we have a group that makes for 15-16 goals matches. We change players and try different combinations. It’s really entertaining, it’s very fun polo as the pitches are so good and allow you to play fast.
Photo: Pablo Ramírez/Cotterel Polo Farms
-What about when there are no tournaments?
-During the weeks with no tournaments we play eight-chukka practices on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, where we use our best horses and the games are faster and tougher, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays we play four or five chilled chukkas with the rest of the string on pitch number 3. That’s how we have everything set-up. It’s an extraordinary place to play polo.
-What’s the club like?
-The location is very attractive. The whole Cotterel Ranch is surrounded by an incredible fauna. There are two huge lakes, you can see deers visiting the club house every morning and mooses going down to the creeks in the evenings. The Ranch has a spectacular 25-room hotel, very comfortable, decorated according to the style of the place and built over a refurbished 1914 barn. It’s amazing.
Photo: Pablo Ramírez/Cotterel Polo Farms
-What do you do other than play polo?
-There are all kinds of activities. You can go kayaking and all the aquatic sports you can imagine at the Snake River. There's Mount Harrison 45 minutes away, with amazing lakes, Yellowstone is only a three-hour trip from here… there are plenty of things to do.
-Who else plays there?
-The group of players who stay the whole season is formed by Pedrinho Zacharias, Santi Stirling, Santi von Wernich, Tomy Alberdi, Gaby Sacullo, Fran Bernardoni, Jenny Lutterell and me. For this week’s tournament we have invited Algis Pabarcius, who is a player from Sun Valley, a ski resort two hours away, and is starting polo in this area. We also do exchanges with Denver, which is a 10-hour drive away.
Photo: Pablo Ramírez/Cotterel Polo Farms
-What’s the horse string like?
-Jenny came close to La Dolfina, started playing Copa Zafiro and that’s how this group of players came together. They are also planning on playing the Autumn season. At the same time, they’ve invested in genetics by buying fillies and some playing mares at the auctions. They already had a very nice string here, with some good stallions. The project is amazing. They have lots of fun playing their own string and aim to have their horses playing good polo.
Photo: Pablo Ramírez/Cotterel Polo Farms
-Are you already looking forward to the Argentine season?
-The string is just starting to play some chukkas. We start the season at the Jockey Club open, with Adolfo (Cambiaso), Tomy Panelo and Hugo Taylor. Then for the Triple Crown with Cría La Dolfina together with Terre and Diego.
-What are your expectations?
-Expectations are always high. The team is very fun, we are pretty well organized. It’s always tough to catch some playing tempo at the beginning. We always start a bit slow and will look forward to improving that. The goal is to improve what we did last season, which won’t be easy, but we are very confident.
Photo: Pablo Ramírez/Cotterel Polo Farms
Cotterel Polo Farms retains 6S Ranch Tournament
Action resumed at Cotterel Polo Farms in a prolific summer season with the realization of the 6S Ranch Tournament, which was played throughout two days and finished with a victory for the home representative against Brass Ranch by an aggregate score of 8 to 7.
Photo: Pablo Ramírez/Cotterel Polo Farms
For this occasion, the majestic club from Idaho counted on the visit of Algis Pabarcius, professional from Sun Valley who honored the tournament with his presence. His performance was worthy of MVP awards.
Local professionals such as Jejo Taranco, Pedrinho Zacharias, Santiago von Wernich and Santiago Stirling also attended the appointment.
Action began on Wednesday, when in a hard fought battle Cotterel started to take a slight lead of 3-2. The score carried on until the definition played on Sunday, as the home representative was able to ratify such difference and imposed themselves by an 8-7 aggregate count.
Photo: Pablo Ramírez/Cotterel Polo Farms
In between tournament matches, Cotterel Polo Farms staged for the Declo Open, featuring the young Santino Taranco, Jejo’s child. The friendly match was won by Rio Grande Polo Club (Santino Taranco, Santi Stirling, Tommy Alberdi/Juan Campion and Pedrino Zacharias). Santino was named MVP as he scored the winning goal and his mare Petaca, played for that matter, received BPP honors.
Photo: Pablo Ramírez/Cotterel Polo Farms
Action at Cotterel Polo Ranch will resume with the Last Chance Tournament, which will close the summer season with another packed action tourney, from Wednesday 24th to Sunday 28th.
Cotterel Won 8, Brass Ranch 7
Cotterel Polo Farms
Jenny Luttrell Bendardoni (0)
Santiago von Wernich (5)
Pedrinho Zacharias (7)
Santiago Stirling (5)
Brass Ranch
Algis Pabarcius (1)
Francisco Benardoni (2)
Jejo Taranco (8)
Tomy Alberdi (4)
MVP- Algis Pabarcius
BPP- Alberta Negrone, owned and played by Santi Von Wernich