Newport Captures Sun Cup In Overtime Thriller; Fred Mannix Sweeps MVP, BPP Honors

WELLINGTON, FL., May 5, 2025---Newport won its first tournament of the spring season Sunday at Grand Champions Polo Club.

By Sharon Robb

Photos by Candace Ferreira

Newport (Gene Goldstein, 0, Matias Gonzalez, 4, Fred Mannix, 7, Tommy Collingwood, 5) rallied in the sixth chukker to defeat previously unbeaten SebiLion (Sebastian Mandelbaum, 0, Leo Mandelbaum, 2, Alejandro Novillo Astrada, 7, Jason Crowder, 5) in overtime, 15-14.

Mannix scored a team-high seven goals, including the game-winner, and was named Most Valuable Player.

Mannix' horse Alberta Yeezy, bred and owned by Mannix and played in the first and fourth chukkers, was Best Playing Pony.

The game was two different halves with SebiLion outscoring Newport, 9-7, in the first half and Newport outscoring SebiLion, 8-5, in the second half.

In the first half, 14-goal SebiLion started off with a 2-0 advantage on handicap. Behind Sebastian Mandelbaum's opening goal for a 3-0 lead and Astrada's back-to-back goals, SebiLion pulled away for a 5-1 lead in the opening chukker.

Newport started to chip away at its second chukker 6-1 deficit, taking advantage of SebiLion penalties. Newport scored three consecutive goals to trail, 6-4, before Sebastian Mandelbaum converted a 30-yard penalty for a 7-4 lead going into the third chukker.

Crowder's goal with 5:37 left in the third chukker gave SebiLion an 8-4 lead. Newport cut it to 8-6 after Mannix converted a 40-yard penalty and scored from 70 yards out lofting the ball with spin through the goal posts to trail 9-7 at halftime.

With goals from Gonzalez and Goldstein, Newport tied the game, 9-9, with 2:58 left in the fourth chukker. Collingwood's goal at 2:13 gave Newport the lead for the first time, 10-9. With a minute left, Astrads scored to tie the game, 10-10, going into the fifth chukker.

The lead changed hands twice before goals by Astrada and Crowder gave SebiLion a 13-11 lead going into the sixth chukker.

SebiLion had leads of 14-11, 14-12 and 14-13, (with Collingwood scoring back-to-back goals to come within one goal) until the last five seconds of regulation when SebiLion was called for a reaching penalty and Mannix converted the penalty to tie the game, 14-14, and send it into overtime. Mannix converted another penalty from the spot to win the game.

In addition to Mannix' seven goals, Collingwood had four goals and Goldstein and Gonzalez each had two goals.

For SebiLion, Astrada had a team-high seven goals, Crowder had three and Sebastian and Leo Mandelbaum each had one goal.

In the subsidiary game, Kaia Polo (Larry Austin, 0, Mariano Gracida, 4, Tomacho Pieres, 6, Santi Toccalino, 7) defeated 3 Graces Polo (Meredith Lovegrove, -1, Sugar Erskine, 6, Nic Roldan, 7, Juan Bollini, 3), 9-7.

In Friday's semifinals, SebiLion, winners of last weekend's Grand Champions Cup, defeated 3 Graces Polo, 9-8, and Newport topped Kaia Polo, 11-8.

SebiLion was coming off last weekend's Grand Champions Cup win. SebiLion (Sebastian Mandelbaum, 0, Leo Mandelbaum, 2, Alejandro Novillo Astrada, 7, Fred Mannix, 7) defeated Kaia Polo (Larry Austin, 0, Mariano Gracida, 4, Santi Toccalino, 7, Juan Bollini, 3), 10-8, to capture the Grand Champions Cup. Sebastian Mandelbaum was MVP.

In last year's Sun Cup, Grand Champions (Joelle Wyser Pratte, -1, Mario Dino, 1, Santos Bollini 2, Juan Bollini, 3) led from start-to-finish to defeat The Polo School (Ogden O'Reilly-Hyland, -1, Leo Mandelbaum, 2, Tomacho Pieres, 6, Tito Gaudenzi, 2), 7-6. Joelle Wyser Pratte was MVP.

The spring season is expected to be the best in the club's 18-year history. The matches are every Friday and Sunday with different rosters each weekend.

The remaining spring schedule (subject to change because of weather) is: May 9-11, Casablanca Spring Challenge; May 16-18, Eastern Challenge; and May 23-26, The Memorial.

The spring season is being live-streamed on Wellington-based ChukkerTV (CTV Sports).