The Wellington season ended with a commanding performance. On Sunday 24 April, Pilot beat La Elina 11-6 at Field 1 of the International Polo Club Palm Beach to win the U.S. Open Polo Championship, completing a Gold Cup and U.S. Open double after their win in March.
How the final went
Pilot led 9-2 at half-time and were never in danger afterwards. Facundo Pieres scored eight goals and added two assists. He was named Most Valuable Player of both the final and the Gauntlet of Polo, having scored 112 goals across the series. Pilot’s side was Curtis Pilot, Mackenzie Weisz, Matías Torres Zavaleta and Pieres.
La Elina, with Jared Zenni and three Obregóns, Facundo, Juan Martín and Gerónimo, had reached the final after a new line-up came together at the start of the tournament.
A season of firsts and repeats
It was Pilot’s second U.S. Open title, after their win in 2019, and it capped an unbeaten run of eleven games that began after a semi-final loss in the C.V. Whitney Cup on 23 February. They finished top of a record-setting 20-team field and conceded an average of 6.8 goals per game.
The horse awards read like a roll of honour for Pieres’s string. Mega Espia was Best Playing Pony of the final, Open Maks took the Best Polo Argentino prize for the final and the club’s Horse of the Year, Open Candy Kiss was Best Playing Pony of the U.S. Open, and Corcha was Best Playing Pony of the Gauntlet.
The summer ahead
For Park Place, who won the Whitney Cup and reached the Gold Cup final, it was a season of strong results without the biggest prize. The English season is next, with the Cartier Queen’s Cup and the Gold Cup at Cowdray Park the big targets.
It is easy to measure a season by its trophies, but the scoring numbers tell a story as well. A player scoring more than a hundred goals in three tournaments is the kind of form that makes high-goal polo so exciting to follow.
Sources: U.S. Polo Association
