“Sweet mother of molasses; it’s a photo — it’s Shaq by a nose!” screams the announcer in Vitamin Water’s commercial starring Shaquille O’Neal as a jockey riding a long-shot filly named Chunk of Love to victory.
The shoot for the ad spot, which first aired during the Super Bowl, wasn’t Shaq’s first time in the saddle, as it turns out. That was last summer, at the Great Meadow polo fields in nearby The Plains, Va.
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Yeas & Nays has learned that the 7-foot-1, 330-pound center, who was just traded to the Phoenix Suns, took polo lessons at Great Meadow as part of his introduction to Virginia’s horse country.
“Last summer was the first time he had been on a horse,” said a source who is deeply involved with Virginia’s polo community.
O’Neal spent a lot of time in the bucolic area of Virginia about 50 miles west of D.C. last year, most of it at Oasis Winery in Hume, Va. (Shaq was rumored to be interested in buying the $4 million winery, but its Web site says it remains closed and is soliciting investors.)
Our source said Shaq dabbled in the Sport of Kings “at the same time that he was meeting his girlfriend at the vineyard. He would spend the weekend and go to the polo ground. He was getting a feel for the lifestyle out here.”
Another source said the winery owners were “trying to show him a fun time.”
Management at Great Meadow did not respond to a request for comment, while O’Neal’s camp offered a polite “no comment.”
Also no word on the condition of O’Neal’s pony at the end of his ride.
