With the Gauntlet of Polo only days away, the top teams in Wellington have been warming up. Tamera won the inaugural PLYRS Cup on Saturday 7 February, beating Park Place 10-7 at the PLYRS Polo Club.
A proper warm-up
Six teams of up to 22 goals took part in the tournament, which was set up as preparation for the C.V. Whitney Cup. Tamera were Alejandro Poma, Sterling Giannico, Diego Cavanagh and Poroto Cambiaso, and Cambiaso was named MVP. Park Place were Christian Weisz, Mariano Obregon, Mariano González and Hilario Ulloa, who is a 10-goaler. The best playing pony was Bravita Pancha.
Cambiaso is fast becoming one of the faces of the season. A win in a warm-up does not guarantee anything, but it is always interesting to see which horses and combinations are working well before the serious pressure starts.
The British season takes shape
Across the Atlantic, the English clubs are putting their calendars out, and ours is a diary that already has plenty of dates.
Guards Polo Club at Smith’s Lawn in Windsor Great Park will run from April to September, with 32 events. Highlights include:
- The Cartier Queen’s Cup, from 19 May to 14 June
- La Martina Varsity Day on 30 May
- The Prince of Wales’s Championship Cup, from 26 July to 9 August
- Indian Polo Day on 18 July
- The Ladies Victrix Ludorum 22-Goal Tournament in late June and early July
- Two delilah Guards Ladies Charity events in August
The schedule includes women’s, youth and amateur events as well as the high-goal tournaments, which is what we like to see from a club that so many of us first visited as spectators.
In Spain, Sotogrande has published a season running from 19 May to 13 September, with 11 tournaments across the Ayala Polo Club and Ayala Los Pinos. The centrepiece is the International Tournament, which runs from 27 July to 29 August with Bronze, Silver and Gold Cups at three handicap levels. It is a lovely way to spend a few weeks in the south of Spain, and the standard of the high goal is excellent.
Next week, the first leg of the Gauntlet begins.
Sources: Polo Times, Polo Press (Guards), Polo Press (Sotogrande)
