- January 24, 2025
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SARASOTA — The view from Rebecca Gutierrez’s corner office window is a constant reminder of just how perfect a job she has as the polo operations manager at Sarasota Polo Club.
After assuming the role in November, Gutierrez is once again immersed in the sport she’s grown to love over the past two decades — without having to endure the emotional aspects that go along with being part of a team. It is the best of both worlds.
As the wife of a three-goal professional polo player, Gutierrez lived in Sarasota off and on for a number of years while her husband, Mark, played polo. After her husband stopped playing two years ago, Gutierrez realized how much she missed coming to Florida.
“I absolutely love this area and the club,” she said.
As the new polo operations manager, Gutierrez is responsible for developing and maintaining the membership of the club, whether it’s keeping members happy or bringing new members into the club.
“I just love the sport so much,” Gutierrez said. “I get jittery when there’s too much time between games.”
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Growing up in Northern England, Gutierrez knew nothing about polo — the sport was virtually non-existent in her region. She discovered polo at age 19 while traveling around Australia and took a job exercising polo ponies.
“I fell in love with the sport immediately,” she said.
Gutierrez returned to England, intending to start university but, much to her father’s dismay, decided to take a year off. She spent time grooming Prince Charles’ polo-team ponies before escaping England’s cold winter weather. She traveled to West Palm Beach. Five months later, she met her husband of 17 years, Mark.
Mark Gutierrez comes from a well-known polo family. With his father in the Polo Hall of Fame and his mother and uncles also involved in the sport, it wasn’t surprising that Mark Gutierrez, who played for the Uihleins with Larry Robinson and George Alexander, would follow suit.
Rather than playing polo, Rebecca Gutierrez focused on the operational aspects of the game. After earning a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from the University of Florida, Gutierrez spent more than 10 years managing clubs in West Palm Beach, New Mexico, New York and South Carolina before coming to the Sarasota Polo Club.
“I’m quite knowledgeable about the fields,” Gutierrez said. “You need to have really good fields, and we do here, which is great. Polo isn’t just about the horses and the players.
“Looking back now, it’s almost like a pre-programmed chain of events,” Gutierrez said of her path to the Sarasota Polo Club. “It was almost like fate. Getting a degree in horticulture and the knowledge I gained traveling with my husband learning the sport.”
THE POLO LIFESTYLE
The 2011-12 polo season kicked off Dec. 18, with the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center Cup and will run through the second weekend in April. Following the season, Gutierrez, who will head to New York for the summer, will spend time traveling to other parts of the country to promote the Sarasota Polo Club and meet with perspective players.
In addition to the polo season, Gutierrez, along with new junior polo instructor Juan Martinez-Baez, hopes to build the club’s junior polo school and eventually form an interscholastic polo-club team.
When she’s not busy managing the Sarasota Polo Club, Gutierrez enjoys riding and spending time with her 6-year-old son, Ash, who is taking riding and polo lessons.
Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].
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