A follow-up appeared today redarding the great Courage Cup polo wars, and this time political corruption is suggested:

On one side: Greg Ball, the former Air Force officer who founded the Courage Cup in 2004 while living in D.C. On the other: two Washington women whom Ball handed the event off to last year — temporarily, he says — when he moved home to enter politics in Upstate New York.

But why did Ball, 29, now a busy freshman state assemblyman, even want to keep running a youthful charity party several hours from his home district? Perhaps because it helped him win his seat.

The Reliable Source found that a New York political action committee started by Ball — which later transferred its entire treasury to his campaign — netted as much as $10,000 by selling tickets to the 2005 Courage Cup. That’s four times the amount the polo match raised that year for its prominently advertised beneficiary, Work to Ride, a Philadelphia charity that teaches poor kids to play polo.

It’s unclear whether anything about the arrangement was improper. But it shocked several D.C. area Courage Cup ticket buyers, who said they had never heard of the group and were stunned to find their names in Ball’s campaign finance records.

“I thought the money was going to kids,” said Andrew McKenna.“I’d be pretty [infuriated] if I found out this was for a political race.”

Fear not, though, even with the controversy, this year’s show will go on. Andrea Rogers, the official President and CEO of The Courage Cup, announced today via press release that
the organization’s Meadow Matches will take place as scheduled at the Great Meadow Polo Club on Saturday. And she notes that tickets are still available.

Earlier: Clash of the Courage Cup Titans; Nasty Courage Cup Update