One of polo's greats will be riding ponies and swinging a mallet during Pacers & Polo, the third leg of the Aiken Triple Crown, on Saturday.
Adam Snow is on the roster of The South Co. team, which will face Burger King in a match that will start at 1 p.m. at the Powderhouse Polo Field.
"We are very lucky to have him playing this year," said Kristen Galvan, who is the polo manager for the Aiken Polo Club.
"He is very talented, very experienced and a great team player."
Polo players are rated on a scale of minus 2 goals to 10 goals.
Snow used to have a 10-goal rating, which put him among the sport's most elite competitors.
His current handicap is 6, which is still quite high considering that about two-thirds of all players handicapped are rated at 2 goals or less.
According to the United States Polo Association, there are only six 10-goal players active now, and none of them are United States citizens.
In 2014, Snow was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame in Lake Worth, Florida. He was the United States Polo Association Player of the Year two times, and he was a member of U.S. Open Polo Championship winning teams twice.
Snow has been a part of Pacers & Polo before, but he didn't play last year.
Other members of The South Co. squad at Pacers & Polo this year will be Chip Limehouse and Eliza Limehouse, who will split playing time in the No. 1 position. Hugh Worsham and Del Walton also will be on the team.
Members of the Burger King squad will be Barb Uskup, Antonio Galvan, Horacio Onetta and Cesar Rangel. Matthew Fonseca will be the alternate.
Antonio Galvan and Onetta both have a 4-goal rating.
"It should be a fantastic game," Kristen Galvan said. "We have a really good group of competitive players."
There will be six chukkers, or periods, during the match along with a 20-minute intermission.
"It will be exciting," said Randy Warwick, USC Aiken's director of athletics. "You'll have big horses running up and down the field; you'll have people hitting the ball and you should see a lot of scoring going on."
There will be inflatables for children to play on, and USCA's Pacer Shoppe and other vendors will be selling a variety of items, including scarves, jewelry, sunglasses and watches.
Proceeds from Pacers & Polo are used for athletic scholarships at USCA.
"This is one of the largest fundraisers that we have each year," Warwick said. "It's important because it helps support our scholarship program, and it's important because it puts USC Aiken out there in the community, giving us great publicity."
The gates will open at 10:30 a.m. for the 12th edition of Pacers & Polo. The Powderhouse Polo Field is on Powderhouse Road. General admission tickets for adults are $8 in advance and $10 at the gate. Tickets for children are $5. VIP Hospitality Tent tickets are $75.
The cost of both general admission and VIP Tent parking is $5 per car and includes up to four souvenir programs per car. Reserved first row parking is $100, which includes four general admission tickets and programs.
To buy VIP Tent tickets, call Debbie Boggs at USCA at 803-641-3630. General admission tickets are on sale at several locations, including Lionel Smith Ltd. and the H. Odell Weeks Activities Center.
Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter.
with the Aiken Standard.