The first 18-goal tournament of the season, the Butler Handicap®, pitted undefeated Postage Stamp Farm (Annabelle Gundlach, Facundo Obregon, Mariano Aguerre, Matias Gonzalez) against Old Hickory Bourbon (Lucas Escobar, Matias Magrini, Santino Magrini, Stephen ‘Stevie’ Orthwein Jr., sub. Kristos ‘Keko’ Magrini) in a rematch of their bracket game two weeks earlier where Postage Farm narrowly captured the one-goal victory. In a sweet taste of revenge, Old Hickory Bourbon emerged on top in the final on Friday, March 5 thanks to the seven-goal effort from Santino Magrini to raise the Butler Handicap® trophy with the 12-9 victory at Port Mayaca Polo Club in Okeechobee, Florida.
Bringing in Kristos Magrini in place of Lucas Escobar, Old Hickory Bourbon began with one goal on handicap and quickly added to their lead, driving downfield and receiving a Penalty 1 in front of Postage Stamp Farm’s goal. Setting the tone early that goals would not be conceded easily, Postage Stamp Farm built an attack of their own that resulted in Aguerre also receiving a Penalty 1 to restore the one-goal difference on handicap. Foul trouble on both sides of the ball carried into the second chukker as Old Hickory Bourbon and Postage Stamp Farm traded penalty conversions with either team yet to score from the field. Aguerre raced forward for Postage Stamp Farm to put the first field goal on the scoreboard, beginning a strong third chukker for his team where he scored three goals and gave Postage Stamp Farm their first lead of the game at 5-4 heading into halftime.
Strategizing at halftime, Old Hickory Bourbon reorganized their defence and limited any opportunities for Postage Stamp Farm to begin the second half, pressuring Aguerre and Obregon to keep their opponents scoreless in the fourth and fifth chukkers. In the decisive stretch of the game, Santino Magrini highlighted a dominant first seven minutes of the second half, outscoring Postage Stamp Farm 5-0, three of which came from field goals by Santino Magrini. With their defence continuing to put possession back in their favor, Old Hickory Bourbon produced a run of seven unanswered goals with contributions from Santino and Kristos Magrini, along with two goals from Orthwein to carry them into the sixth chukker holding a commanding 10-5 lead. A determined effort from Postage Stamp Farm in the final few minutes cut the deficit to three, but they could not overcome the exceptional offensive performance from Santino Magrini, who added two more goals in the final chukker to cap off the 12-9 victory for Old Hickory Bourbon.
Stephen Orthwein Jr. captured Most Valuable Player honors, while Best Playing Pony was awarded to Chela, played and owned by Mariano Aguerre.