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With the stunning backdrop of the Santa Ynez Mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other, Agustin Merlos and Paco de Narvaez popped the champagne bottles to celebrate their second Triple Crown of Polo victory in Santa Barbara, Calif. on Sunday, August 27th, 2006.
Duende defeated Windsor Capital 13 - 11 in an intense game in which Agustin Merlos scored 9 of Duende's goals and was named the MVP of the tournament. Duende patron Mike Hakan told ESPN his team was in the "zone" during the game and knew they had what is took to pull out this hard fought victory.
"There was tremendous pressure on these guys," said Hakan after the game. "They went to the edge of composure and came back. It was WWF out there at times."
An unprecedented five-way tie for three semi-final slots caused some confusion and controversy during semi-finalist selection. An appeal from Pat Nesbitt's Windsor Capital supported by the USPA's tie-breaker procedure drove one team out of contention and put Windsor in the final four. With Windsor and Duende winning their semi games, a rematch of the 2005 final assured the fans an emotional battle.
Windsor Capital's coach Steve Crowder complained Duende's method of slowing the game to a crawl and drawing fouls worked well for them by resulting in plenty of penalty shots. Fans wanted a more open flowing game, but Duende's style, while not making for pretty polo, did succeed to give them the victory.
Duende's de Narvaez' horse 'Galleta' took center stage playing briefly in five of the six chukkers for a brief spell each time and her amazing game performance earned Best Playing Pony accolades.
On the other end of the field the horse story of the day was one of tragedy. Jeff Hall lost a horse Susie in the final.
"That was very sad," said Hakan. "It was the only bad accident all season."
Silver Lexus convertibles swept up the winners to drive them to the winners' podium and the Tiffany-designed Triple Crown of Polo championship trophy. Merlos, the ten-goal phenom from Argentina struck a pose in the TCP winners jacket custom made by New York's Alan Flusser and awarded Masters' style to winners of each leg of the Triple Crown of Polo.
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