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While a coveted green jacket awaits a proud new owner as the Masters prepares to get underway at Augusta National, Cecilia Cochran - patron of the Rude Boy polo team - can look fondly in her closet at the purple Alan Flusser Custom jacket given to her in honor of her win in the Triple Crown of Polo at Sarasota Polo Club.
"It's probably my only fifteen minutes of fame," the 35-year-old from Palm Beach told reporters. "But it's a good fifteen minutes."
Rude Boy Polo defeated Julia Cook's Alazana/MGA Insurance 12-10 in the finals of the Robert A. Uihlein Jr. Memorial Trophy played out in front of a record crowd of spectators at the Sarasota Polo Club calculated by the local paper to be 5000. The game was filmed for ESPN 2 as the opening leg of the 2007 Triple Crown of Polo series sponsored by Lexus and will air on June 23rd on ESPN2 at 1pm ET.
Cochran, whose grandfather, Michael Phipps, was a 10-goal player in the 1930s, started playing polo five years ago. Her team line up included her boyfriend Ka'aina DeCoite from Hawaii and Argentina's Ruben Coscia and Guille Aguero.
A pre-game highlight was an appearance by the Budweiser Clydesdales while the field side Polo Pavilion featured Lexus's presentation of their new LS600hl, the world's first full-sized luxury hybrid sedan.
Both finals teams were faced with last minute line up changes - Pelon Escapite, taking the place of Francisco Bilbao for Alazana and Aguero coming in to replace Sugar Erskine in the Rude Boy team. "I'm very happy to be here," Aguero told the ESPN camera crew as he put his boots on before the finals. "I know Sugar well and we talked a little bit about the way the team plays before I came here." While Aguero filled Erskine's shoes, it was Coscia who played his socks off for Rude Boy to win the MVP award as well as take home the Best Playing Pony prize for his mare 'Georgia'. "It's been a great season," said Coscia, who has played all winter with Rude Boy Polo's Cochran and 2-goal Decoite, winning the Sunday January 12-goal league and the Friday January and February 12-goal leagues.
The winners' names will be engraved for posterity on the Triple Crown of Polo trophy, a solid silver work of art, handmade by Tiffany & Co. and called "the most magnificent trophy in all of sport," by famous artist LeRoy Neiman. The tape of the game will be distributed on the ESPN 2 and ESPN International networks, reaching more than196 countries in twelve different languages.
Next stop for the Triple Crown of Polo will be the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club for the finals of the Pacific Coast Open on Sunday August 26th and then the New Bridge Polo and Country Club in Aiken, SC for the conclusion of this year's series on Saturday September 22.
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