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 Cambiaso in 2019 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
Nickname | Dolfi[1] |
| Born | (1975-04-15)15 April 1975 (age 50) Cañuelas, Argentina |
| Website | www |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Polo |
| Rank | One (10-goal handicap) |
| Team | La Dolfina Polo Team |
| Achievements and titles | |
| World finals | Abierto de Polo with La Ellerstina: 1994, 1997, 1998 withLa Dolfina: 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. |
| Highest world ranking | 2 |
Adolfo Cambiaso (born 15 April 1975) is an Argentine professionalpolo player with a10-goal handicap rating.
From an early age his mother, Martina de Estrada Lainez, encouraged her son Adolfo and his half brothers to play polo.[2] By age 12 he had a 1-goal handicap, and a year later, with a 3-goal rating, he won theEduardo Heguy Cup with team La Martina, playing with his father (also Adolfo). In 1989, at age 14 and with the San Diego team, he won theCampaña del Desierto Cup, and a year later theRenault Cup Open with La Martina, gaining a 6-goal handicap.[citation needed]
Cambiaso traveled abroad regularly, winning 24 tournaments in Argentina, England and the US, while playing for teams like La Martina, Ellerstina/Ellerston White and others. In 1994 he won the "Triple Corona" (Argentine Open,Hurlingham Open,Tortugas Open) with Ellerstina, and his handicap rating was raised to 10-goals, the youngest player to attain this.[citation needed]
He won 31 tournaments with teams like La Martina, Ellerstina/Ellerston White, White Birch and Outback.[citation needed]
His awards included theOlimpia de Plata award as the most important Argentine polo player of 1997, and the best player at the final of theAbierto Argentino 1997, with a record 67 goals in the 1998Abierto Argentino.[citation needed]
In this period Cambiaso took home 33 trophies. He left Ellerstina, and became successful with his own team, La Dolfina, which he co-founded withBartolomé Castagnola, and won theCampeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo (Argentine Open) in 2002.[citation needed] In England he started playing for theDubai team, and won theCartier Queen's Cup three times and theGold Cup seven (including for other teams),[3] among other tournaments.[citation needed]
Cambiaso's La Dolfina team continued to dominate, winning the Argentine Open in 2005, 2006 and 2007. They defeated Ellerstina by 20–19 in 2005, the highest score in an Argentine Open final match.[citation needed] He continued playing successfully forDubai in England, but also became captain for team Crab Orchard in the US, winning the US Open and the USPA Gold Cup.[citation needed] 2008 was a less successful year, not winning one match in the English polo season, nor any of the prestigious Argentine tournaments. La Dolfina made it to the finals of the Argentine Open, but was beaten by Ellerstina 12-13 after a golden goal byGonzalo Pieres in an extra time.[citation needed]
Today,[when?] he is considered the best player in the world[4] and the most successful player in the Argentine Open, competing 15 times and winning 7, and played in the final another 2 times. He scored 535 goals in the Argentine Open alone, breaking the record held by Bautista Heguy with 531 goals.[5][6][7] He played for the Argentina national team since 2002 when they won theCopa Quilmes.[citation needed]
Of his horses, the most notable wereLili,Ilusión,Sospechosa,La Osa, and his favouriteColibrí. His most recognized horses includedMambo,Bruma andDolfina Cuartetera. For the 2015 U.S. Open, his best horses were the mare Romana and the stallion Boeing, known as the "American Pharoah" of the polo world.[citation needed]
At age 25 Cambiaso decided to create his ownbreeding business from scratch, as well as the polo teamLa Dolfina. Today he has nearly 1000 horses on his extensive farms.
One of his best polo ponies was a world-famous stallion,Aiken Cura. The horse was seriously injured during the final of the 2006 Argentine Open, and suffered further setbacks in treatment of the broken bone in his near foreleg. The injury occurred in the extra chukka, and the horse was taken off in the horse ambulance, forcing Cura's early retirement from the field. After amputation a prosthesis was fitted, but due to complications Aiken Cura had to be euthanized in January 2007, but not before live skin cells were harvested at Cambiaso's request in the event cloning became possible.[8]
Cambiaso pioneered the horsecloning business. He was approached by polo enthusiast Texan Alan Meeker ofCrestview Genetics. Meeker teamed up with Cambiaso, and in 2010 produced that first clone.[9] Together with biologist Dr. Adrian Mutto and Argentine tycoon Ernesto Gutiérrez he proceeded to clone his favorite 17-year-old mareCuartetera, multiple times, clones of which he rode to win the 2017Argentine Open.
A clone of his horseCuartetera was bought for $800,000 at an auction, making it the most expensive horse sale in polo history.[10] This horse was kept by contract within the partnership. No clones are now sold, only their foals.
In 2001 Cambiaso married former model and Argentine television presenter María Vázquez.[11] He has three children: Mia (born 2002), Adolfo Jr (born 2005)—who was born during theArgentine Polo Open in the middle of a qualifier against Centauros-Beaufort, which his father left half-way through in order to be present at the birth—and Myla (born 2010).
He won the PlatinumKonex Award in 2000 and 2010 as the best poloist of each decade in Argentina.[12] On 24 June 2012,Queen Elizabeth II presented Cambiaso with an award commending his pioneering efforts to encourage violence-free training in a country where breaking a horse used to involve pain and distress, as recommended by pioneer horse trainerMonty Roberts.[13]
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Olimpia de Oro 2014 | Succeeded by |