Adolfo Cambiaso

Early years

From a young age his mother, Martina de Estrada Lainez, encouraged her son Adolpho and his half brothers to play polo. By the time he was 12 years old his handicap had reached 1-goal. A year later, with a 3-goal handicap, he won the Eduardo Heguy Cup with the La Martina team, playing with his father (also Adolfo). In 1989, at age 14 and with the San Diego team, he won the Campaña del Desierto Cup, and a year later the Renault Cup Open with La Martina, gaining a 6-goal handicap.

1990 to 1994

Cambiaso traveled abroad regularly, winning 24 tournaments in Argentina, England and the USA, while playing for teams like La Martina, Ellerstina/Ellerston White and others. In 1994 he won the "Triple Corona" (Argentine Open, Hurlingham Open, Tortugas Cup) with Ellerstina and was promoted to a 10-goal handicap, the youngest player to attain this.

1995 to 1999

He won 31 tournaments with teams like La Martina, Ellerstina/Ellerston White, White Birch and Outback.

He received several distinctions, among them the Olimpia de Plata award as the most important Argentine polo player of 1997, best player at the final of the Abierto Argentino 1997, with a record 67 goals in the 1998 Abierto Argentino.

2000 to 2004

In this period Cambiaso took home 33 trophies. He stopped playing for Ellerstina, and became successful with his own team La Dolfina, which he co-founded with Bartolomé Castagnola , and won the Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo (Argentine Open) in 2002. In England, he started playing for the Dubai team, and won the Cartier Queen's Cup three times and the Gold Cup twice, among other tournaments.

2005 to 2008

Cambiaso's La Dolfina Team proved to be one of the best, after winning the Argentine Open in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In 2005 the team defeated Ellerstina by 20-19, the highest score in an Argentine Open final match. He continues playing for Dubai in England successfully, but also became the team captain for Crab Orchard in the US, winning the US Open and the USPA Gold Cup. 2008 ended as a less successful year after not winning one match in the English polo season and not winning one of the prestigious Argentine tournaments. With La Dolfina he made it into the finals of the Argentine Open, but was beaten by Ellerstina 12-13 after a golden goal by Gonzalo Pieres in an extra time.

By now, he was considered the best player in the world 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. He has played also for the Argentine national team since 2002 when he won the Copa Quilmes.

Horses

Of his horses, the most notable were Lili, Ilusión, Sospechosa, La Osa, and his favourite Colibrí. But one of his best polo horses was indeed his world-famous stallion Aiken Cura. The horse was seriously injured during the final of the 2006 Argentine Open and has suffered further setbacks in treatment of the broken bone in his near foreleg. The injury happened in the extra chukka and the horse was taken off in the horse ambulance to be treated. It forced Cura's early retirement from the polo field. After amputation a prothesis was fitted but due to complications Aiken Cura had to be euthanized in January 2007. Nowadays his most recognized horses are Mambo, Bruma and Dolfina Cuartetera. As of the 2015 U.S. Open, his best horses are the mare, Romana and the stallion, Boeing, who is known as the "American Pharoah" of the polo world.

A clone of his horse Cuartetera was bought for $800,000 at an auction, making it the most expensive horse sale in polo history.

Marriage

In 2001 Cambiaso married former model and Argentine television presenter María Vázquez. He has Three children, Mia (born 2002), Adolfo jr (born 2005), who was born during the Argentine 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).

Commendations

On 24 June 2012, Her Majesty 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 famed JoinUp pioneer Monty Roberts.