WELLINGTON, FL., March 12, 2025---Quite on Z saved its best for last in the USPA Bronze Trophy 12-Goal championship final Tuesday at Grand Champions Polo Club.
By Sharon Robb
Photos by Candace Ferreira
Quite on Z (Pablito Falabella, -1, Artemio Figueras, 2, Joaquin Panelo, 6, Hilario Figueras, 5) dominated Globalport (Mikee Romero, 0, Jack Whitman, 2, Beltran Laulhe, 6, Anthony Garcia, 4) for an impressive 11-5 victory.
Quite on Z finished the tournament undefeated at 4-0, Z defeating Los Machitos, 12-11; Casablanca, 11-7; and Globalport, 9-8, to get to the final. Globalport finished 2-2.
Hilario Figueras, 25, turned in one of his finest performances on the field including his first-ever goal from center field to earn Most Valuable Player honors. He scored a game-high five goals and picked up a penalty-one goal.
"Winning this is awesome," Figueras said. "It's obviously great to win everything you play. It's a very special trophy, a very old trophy. It has a lot of history. It's been around for a very long time so it's great to win."
Figueras' 9-year-old mare Malvon was selected American Polo Horse Association Best Playing Pony. The horse was bred in the family's Cria Yatay successful breeding operation in Argentina. Egipcia, owned and played by Joaquin Panelo, was the Grand Champions Best Playing Pony.
"I brought him to the U.S. last year, it was his first year playing here," Figueras said. "He is a great horse with a very big heart. He runs and runs and runs and plays once or twice every single game. He is a very important horse for me."
The game had two different looks to it in the first and second halves. The second half was all Quite on Z. Globalport, known for its late chukker comebacks, could not get past Quite on Z's relentless defense for most of the second half in which Quite on Z outscored them, 8-3.
"We watched Globalport's last game against Casablanca and we saw that Casablanca had a good lead at halftime," Figueras said. "We said lets focus and not let them try and come back to the game because they are good finishers. That was basically our gameplan."
Quite on Z broke open a close game in the second half scoring five unanswered goals in the fourth and fifth chukkers for an 8-2 lead before Globalport could score again on Romero's neck shot with 2:45 left in the fifth chukker. On his fourth attempt from center field, Figueras scored with 41 seconds left in the fourth chukker for a 6-2 lead. Quite on Z pulled away 11-3 in the sixth chukker.
"It was my first time ever scoring from midfield," said Figueras, who was sidelined for three months with an injury. "I was coming back from a big injury and I am feeling better and better every single game, so it's great."
Quite on Z turned the stats around in the second half, outshooting Globalport, 17-12 and leading knock-ins, 8-5, and throw-ins 8-6. Quite on Z led in fouls, 9-7, but no goals were scored off penalties.
"I think we are very organized in terms of horses and good players," Figueras said. "We have a lot of chemistry."
In the first half, Whitman opened the game centering the ball and then hitting an open cut shot with angle for the first goal. He had saved the ball before the endline.That was the last time Globalport would have the lead.
The first half was close, but Quite on Z controlled the offensive attack with two goals from Panelo and Figueras for a 2-1 lead going into the third. To start the third chukker, Hilario Figueras connected with his younger brother Artemio Figueras on a 140-yard pass for a 3-1 advantage. Whitman came back to score with 15 seconds left to trail, 3-2 , at the half.
For the first half, Globalport led shots-on-goal, 7-6 and throw-ins, 4-3. Quite on Z led knock-ins, 5-3, and fouls, 4-2.
In addition to Hilario Figueras' five goals, Panelo had three goals and Artemio Figueras added two. For Globalport, Romero and Whitman each had two goals and Lauhle had one.
In only their second year of playing at Grand Champions, Quite on Z, led by patron Alecia Seidler, has been the most dominant team at the club this season. Quite on Z also won the Top Pony 8-Goal and Aspen Valley 8-Goal titles. For the Bronze Trophy final, Pablito Falabella played for Seidler, sidelined with an illness. There will be little time for celebration since Figueras and his 8-goal team play its first Limited Edition 8-Goal game on Wednesday.
It was the first time Grand Champions, the nation's largest club, hosted the USPA Bronze Trophy 12 Goal Tournament.
Last year's winner was Maharlika (Gina Padilla, 0, Miguel (Miki) Astrada Jr., 2, Santino Magrini, 4, Matias Magrini, 6) who defeated Los Altos (Alvaro Fernandez, 0, Keko Magrini, 6, Memo Gracida, 3, Luis Saraco, 3), 13-9, at La Herradura Polo Club in Santa Ynez, Calif.
Established in 1980, the Bronze Trophy is a prestigious national tournament played at the 8- to 12-goal level. Originally hosted at Gulfstream Polo Club (now defunct) in Lake Worth until its closure, the tournament relocated in 2015 to New Bridge Polo & Country Club in Aiken, S.C.
During the winter polo season, Grand Champions Polo Club, the nation's largest and most innovative USPA-sanctioned polo club nestled in the heart of the world's winter equestrian capital, hosts a wide range of tournaments: 6, 8, 12, 20, and 26-goal leagues, 26-goal World Polo League, The Polo School Women's Weekly Polo League, WCT Finals, several Polo Training Foundation junior tournaments, World Polo League Pride and Sunset Chukkers & Cocktails at both Grand Champions and Santa Rita Polo Farm.
Grand Champions and Santa Rita Polo Farm is the largest and most unique private 102-acre polo facility in Wellington with 212 stalls in nine self-contained barns, two tracks, five climate-controlled tack rooms, vet room, staff quarters, guest house and four polo fields with state-of-the-art underground irrigation and short work arena. The club has 10 well-manicured world-class fields at GCPC and Santa Rita.