Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9410220028
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
There is a good reason why Adam Snow, ranked among the top three American polo players, has passed up an attractive trip to Argentina to be in Roanoke this weekend.
It's called childbirth.
Snow and his wife, Shelley, are expecting a baby in three weeks.
``I've plugged in my mobile phone,'' said Snow, whose wife is in veterinary school at the University of Georgia. ``I feel fortunate to have opportunities like this to play in the Southeast.''
Snow will represent Team Michelob against Gone Away Farm today at 2 p.m. in the Roanoke Symphony Polo Club, which features professionals for the first time in its seven years. Gates open at 10 a.m. at Green Hill Park in Roanoke County.
``Ten years ago, professionalism in polo was a relatively rare thing,'' Snow said. ``Most of the professional polo players derived most of their income from selling horses.''
Snow owns a farm in Aiken, S.C., where he raises and trains horses, but he devotes much of his energy to traveling and competing.
``I have five more years at which I should be at my peak,'' said Snow, 30, who spent the summer in England and France.
Snow has a rating of eight goals on a scale of 1-10 (ten being the highest). He had a four-goal rating when he graduated from Yale, where he played hockey and lacrosse but not polo.
``It was my shot to play hockey and I wanted to go for it,'' said Snow, who was captain as a senior. ``That's a Boston thing. The [college] polo was a relatively low level compared to what I played in the summers.''
Snow was 12 when he started playing polo at the Myopia Hunt Club in Hamilton, Mass.
``My father played [as did] my grandfather, uncle and cousins,'' Snow said, ``so it was inevitable that I began playing. Initially, I didn't even enjoy riding because my earliest memories were of my father making me get up before school on cold spring mornings and helping him exercise the ponies.''
After college, Snow's intention was to play polo professionally for a year, travel and maybe learn a little Spanish.
``I never expected it to be as lucrative as it has proven to be,'' he said. ``It's as much of a full-time job as many others. A lot of my friends think of how plush I've got it, but there's a lot of pressure and a lot of commitment that go along with it. It's a huge sacrifice.''
Snow said the top 10-goal players, most of them Argentinian, earn in excess of $1 million per year.
Snow will be joined on Team Michelob by captain Lito Salatino, who has a six-goal rating; Edgar Cato, and amateur Jamie Reynolds.
``It's like a golf scramble,'' Reynolds, who arrived by plane Friday with Snow. ``I just hope they use one of my shots once in a while.''
Roger Steele of Fincastle, who was to have played with Team Michelob, has joined the opposition. The Gone Away Farm Polo team is based in Poolesville, Md., and operates the Potomac Polo Club and School.
``This is a good level of competition for anywhere,'' Snow said. ``It's a relatively small world [in polo] and Roger Steele is the only other player I don't know. I haven't seen Martin Estrada for a while, but I hear he's playing well. He's always well-mounted.''
by CNB