be able to watch them played by another player in
this scenario which is the Palermo final is awesome.
How does this pony reach Juan Martín Nero?
This mare is now nine years old. When she was five,
Alfio Marchini invited me to lay a practice match at
“La Virgencita”, and Juanma was short of a horse
that someone was going to take for him to try, and
I said ‘I would enjoy that you try out my Vasca Ha-
rrods, and watch her being played by you’. And he
played her and liked her. He liked her very much
and asked me if he could try her out. I said ‘ok, you
can play her after the semi-finals…’ And it was in
that match that he broke his finger and was never
able to try her out again because he was in plaster
for a month… And so I think that his misfortune was
lucky for me, because if he’d have been able to try
her out aged five, he’d most likely have kept her…
Can you recall any other anecdote in relation to
Vasca Harrods?
Yes… at one point we were in the playoffs for the
Open, playing against a very good team on field
N°1 at Palermo. She was one of my best mares,
together with La Lluvia. I prepared my list of hor-
ses, and when the match ended and we’d won
comfortably by four goals, I think, my groom comes
up to me and asks: ‘why didn’t you play Harrods? I
thought for a minute and suddenly realized that in all
the rush of the match, and as we were playing well,
I never realized that I’d completely forgotten her…
So, in fact—and particularly now that you’ve
won this prize—you did enjoy watching her play
the Palermo final…
Yes, very much so. I knew this mare was extremely
good. But as it was I who played her, it’s not the
same thing. That is why, played by Juanma, she
was made to do things that I haven’t got her to do,
and quite frankly, I thoroughly enjoyed watching
her from the stands.
Because to be honest, we no longer get to play tho-
se finals in important tournaments, and like her, I
have other ponies which if played by the big teams,
would excel, but unfortunately for them… it is I who
has to play them!
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