Bin Drai dethrone Zedan to lift President’s Cup

Abu Dhabi: Bin Drai Polo dethroned Zedan Polo to lift the celebrated HH President of the UAE Polo Cup at the Ghantoot Racing & Polo Club on Friday evening.

The visiting Saudi Arabian Zedan looked to be heading for a repeat win until Salvador Ulloa helped Bin Drai rally with two late goals to clinch the contest 9-8.

In an evenly-matched and fast-paced final, Bin Drai, who ended Ghantoot’s campaign in the semis with a 11-10 win, swung the Cup final in their favour with those two goals in the final chukka.

Ulloa, the seven-goal handicap player, scored once in each of the first two chukkas to give a great start to Bin Drai but goals from Billy Healy and Ignatio Heguy ensured the teams started the third period level 2-2.

The third chukka was a virtual Ulloa vs Heguy affair, with two goals from each of the stars and it was 4-4 at the end of this period. Mariano Uranga, the six-goal player from Zedan and Juan Jose Brane, the seven-goal player from Bin Drai joined the party with two goals each while Ulloa and Heguy also scored for their respective teams and the large crowd were now in for a tantalising final chukka with the scores level on 7-7.

Healy was back in the thick of the action and a superb goal gave the defending champions an early 8-7 lead but Bin Drai had other ideas. With five goals already under his belt, Ulloa first drew level and then struck the matchwinner to give Bin Drai Polo their biggest triumph of the season and also earn the title of Most Valuable Player.

Bin Drai’s win on Friday was all the more creditable as there were strong teams in the fray which included recent Gold Cup champions and hosts Ghantoot, 2012 Silver Cup Champions Abu Dhabi and 2012 Gold Cup Champions Habtoor - apart from the defending champions Zedan.

Shaikh Khalifa Bin Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, along with Saeed Bin Houfan Al Mansouri, Vice Chairman of Ghantoot Racing & Polo Club gave away the trophies to bring the curtain down on the polo season at Ghantoot. “It is good to see so many people come to our club to watch this final,” Mansouri said.

“We have long had a policy of throwing open our gates to the general public to allow free access to our big events as well as putting on a varied schedule of free family entertainment during the course of the day and we believe this inclusive approach can only be good for the development of polo and the promotion of our club in the UAE,” he said.