The Lucchese polo team and Prince Harry at Sandhurst, England

Devin Leah Flaherty married to Wallace MacKenzie Staniar, June 21 in Marble Colorado

Catching Up:

Prince Harry of Britain gave Lucchese patron John Muse a thrill when the prince donned a Lucchese shirt to play in match benefiting the British Forces Foundation. "It was a great day for polo and he (Prince Harry) was a delightful guy supporting a good cause, The British Forces Foundation," said John.

Brent and Robin Mirkitani headed to Hawaii for a little R and R after playing at both Dallas NTP and Oak Point polo clubs. Oscar Bermudez joined them for a little polo on a Hawaiian beach. We know, it's a hardship, but hey, somebody's gotta do it.

The Dallas area is ripe for a new Willowbend Polo and Hunt Club, a Texas IPC if you will, with restaurants, bars, etc. but, where will it be? The real question seems to be: will Dallas area polo players regroup and support such an effort? Everyone hopes so, but who can say at this juncture?

Happy birthday to Phil Heatley, who celebrated his 60th an asado at polo at the Santa Fe Horse Park hosted by Marla and Charlie Kokesh. Tim, Phil's MUCH YOUNGER FRIEND, flew in Friday for dinner at the Pink Adobe, the long-time Santa Fe dining institution and polo sponsor. (There is a photo of Preston Carter, H. Ben Taub and the late Tom Corbitt gracing the entrance.) Shelley did a great covert job of keeping it a secret. Rob and Robert Payne came in from Dallas to join in the party and for chukkers.

We heard from our friend in Virginia, Jamie Nicoll, recently, who says that while his neck is not quite healed enough to get back on that nice polo string of his, one of his ponies won BPP in a 20 goal recently under Owen Rheinhart. Jamie, hopes to be back in the saddle soon and we hope to see him there.

After years of standing on the sidelines on the event course and at the beside the show ring taking pictures of everyone else competing, Gary Knoll is in the saddle and playing polo. He competed in his first tournament, the 302 Polo July 4 Tournament at Brigadoon in Aiken, where not only did his team win, but he was named Most Valuable Player. Winners in this tournament got some great prizes, including ten bags of feed donated by Charlie Herrick of Banks Mill Feeds. As MVP, Gary won a battery-operated hobby horse from Aiken Saddlery.

Anyone wondering what Kathy Batchelor is up to these days need look no farther than Aiken, where she's conducting carriage rides through town - with a four in hand of Minis! In addition to the tours with Mini Milers Carriage Drives, Kathy and Mimi Culligan are enjoying combined driving events. Gotta be a blast.

The Work To Ride program is really turning out the players these days, Kareem Rosser, WTR's strongest player has a younger brother Daymar who just played in his first USPA tournament and was top scorer in their preliminary games and helped bring his team to a win by a goal in the finals.