Introducing the Polo Canada Season Leader Award

Polo Canada is announcing the Polo Canada Season Leader Award. This award was developed and well received during the 2024 season at participating western Canadian Clubs and is being rolled out formally for the 2025 polo season.

2024 Season Leader Award Winners

The 2024 Season Leader Award winners were a tie between: Lauren King, Springfield Polo Club and Alex Wales, Okanagan Polo Club

Award Overview

The Season Leader Winner is awarded to the amateur Polo Canada member that achieves the most points during the polo season with points being awarded at each participating Polo Canada member club’s designated tournament. Points are awarded for Participation, Results, Best Playing Pony (BPP) and Most Valuable Player (MVP) recognitions. Participation in tournaments is prioritized, recognizing those that make great efforts to travel to support participating tournaments. Participation in all tournaments is not a prerequisite to winning the award recognition.

Guidelines

• Players are not required to attend all tournaments to win the award.

• The Award shall be given during the awards ceremony of the final tournament of the season.

• Should a tournament be cancelled or shortened once the tournament has begun, players registered for the tournament shall still earn participation awards.

• Points won shall count at that tournament if the host committee deems enough games have been played to determine clear winners.

• In the event of a tie, the players tied for first place shall each receive the award.

• In the event of a 3-way tie or greater, those players with the most tournaments entered shall break the tie.

Each qualifying tournament must:

• Be open to any Polo Canada member

• Be advertised to the greater polo community

• Must not be restrictive or exclusive

• Must be a two or three day tournament played over four consecutive days or less.

• Each Polo Canada member club shall designate one tournament to earn points.

• Be approved by Polo Canada

3-4 Team Tournament / Tournament Flights

• Full position participation: 100 points

• Half position participation: 75 points

• Win: 100 points

• Second: 50 points

• BPP:  25 points

• MVP: 25 points

5-6+ Team Tournament / Tournament Flights

• Full position participation: 100 points

• Half position participation: 75 points

• Win: 100 points

• Second: 75 points

• BPP:  25 points

• MVP: 25 points

Special Notes

• Two separate flights at the same tournament shall be treated as separate tournaments for the sake of earning points. Players playing in two flights at the same tournament shall receive points for one flight. Whichever flight that player earns the most points in shall be counted as that player’s points.

• Should a player substitute for a registered player once the tournament has started, the original player shall receive the participation points. Any points won shall be divided whereby the original and replacement player shall split the points based on games played. Whichever player starts each game shall be deemed as the player that played that game.

• The BPP points will be awarded to the owner of the horse. Should the owner and rider be different people, the points shall be split between the owner and rider: 15 points to the owner / 10 for the rider.

• Should the owner and rider be different people, yet same family / string, the points shall be awarded to the rider of the horse. A horse owner may have multiple opportunities to gain BPP points should their lent (not rented) horse earn BPP points in either tournament flight. All BPP points on a rented horse shall be awarded to the rider.

• BPP and MVP awards shall be chosen by the host committee and include third party involvement; it is encouraged to include the umpire(s).

Tournament Results Submission

Each Club will submit their tournament results to Polo Canada. A member of the Polo Canada Board will tally results and send out season standings to the polo community on behalf of Polo Canada.

Please forward tournament results to Jack Schneider at jackschneiderjr@gmail.com and copy Karen White at karenwhite@zing-net.ca.