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Mon 18th Jul 2016

King Power Foxes Retain Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup

British High Goal Season Closes with an Incredible Game

 

The powerhouse of Pieres brothers Facundo and Gonzalito stormed around the ground at Cowdray Park Polo Club to claim a two-time win for King Power Foxes of The Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup for the British Open on Sunday 17 July. It was a glorious high summer day with thousands of spectators turning up to enjoy the last battle of the British high goal season between crowd favourites La Indiana and last year’s winners King Power Foxes.

La Indiana have so far reached three out of three Finals (Trippets Challenge, Cartier Queen’s Cup and The Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup), an incredible feat for a team in their first full season of playing the British 22 goal, which has won them the hearts of the polo community, but they were simply out horsed in the last two chukkas of this years Gold Cup. The Pieres duo kept their tactics simple, as with all of their games leading up to the Final, run, and run very fast for the first three chukkas to cunningly tire out the opposition. The plan worked. The only minor deviation were the number of goals that the blue shirts missed. It wasn’t just about horsepower; skill and teamwork had a huge part to play. Whilst La Indiana are a coherent foursome that work well together, the pressure on the pitch as Facundo circled round them to score again and again meant the cracks began to show. By half-time the score was 5-5 and umpires Julian Appleby and Jason Dixon had hardly blown a foul at all for either side, which meant the chukkas were short, fast and to the point. The fourth chukka was a fruitless battle with both teams missing the goal, but it was the fifth chukka that was the undoing of La Indiana as King Power Foxes scored two important goals to edge forward 7-5 as La Indiana’s pony power began to wain. The last chukka was a similar story as the Pieres powered on to finish the game 9-5. Facundo Pieres had a special day winning the Best Playing Pony prize for Sarmiento, a bay gelding owned by Marcos di Paola, which he played in the second and fifth chukka. He was also named Most Valuable Player.

Immortalising the victory of the 2016 Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup, the winners each received one of four engraved Reverso Grande Taille watches that were presented to the winning team by Jaeger-LeCoultre CEO Daniel Riedo. The watches were personalised with the date of the tournament and the outline of the revered Gold Cup trophy. The engraved Reverso watches encapsulate the longstanding relationship of the Grande Maison and Cowdray Park Polo Club. A full report on the Final will be in the August issue of Polo Times.

Photograph: Most Valuable Player Facundo Pieres plucking the ball out of the air whilst Julian de Lusarreta watches on. By ©www.imagesofpolo.com


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