Mon 16th Jun 2025Park Place Lift Cartier Queens Cup Thrilling Final under sunny skies at Guards Polo Club
The Cartier Queen’s Cup is always a highlight of the English high goal season and this year with the Final set against blue skies and warm sunshine; there couldn’t have been anywhere better to spend your Sunday. The Final sold out days ahead of Sunday 15 June, highlighting the popularity of the day and the eagerness of spectators to see if Park Place could finally lift the to date illusive title. Andrey Borodin’s organisation had reached the Final four times previously (2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021), would 2025 be their year? With Hilario Ulloa on top form and solidly supported by the talented Rufino Bensadon and Rosendo Torreguitar, they were certainly in with a strong chance. However, they faced La Dolfina/ Marqués de Riscal whose average team age of just 21½-years-old belied the talent and horsepower in the team. Defending champion, Rosendo Torreguitar (who won The Cartier Queen’s Cup with Talandracas last year) returned to face 2024 Queen’s Cup runner-up Poroto Cambiaso, who was no doubt eager to add his name to a trophy that his father Adolfo, has won 10 times over his impressive career.
Before both the Finals on Sunday, a minute’s silence was held in memory of Sunjay Kapur, Aureus’ patron, who sadly passed away unexpectedly on Thursday 12 June while playing the Subsidiary Semi Final against Sujan Indian Tigers; and all the players on Finals’ Day wore a black armband.
The day began with a 13-9 win for Sujan Indian Tigers against La Dolfina/Scone in the Subsidiary Final and Jaisal Singh dedicated the win to his friend, Sunjay Kapur.
As the wind picked up around The Queen’s Ground the highlight of the day got underway and saw park Place dominate the first chukka 3-0, putting their opponents off balance. After an end of chukka team talk from Adolfo Cambiaso, La Dolfina/ Marqués de Riscal attacked with renewed vigour to claw back the scoreline to trail by one, 4-3. As expected, the Final was hard fought, with the teams working tirelessly to punch through their opponents’ defences – by half time the scores remained just one goal apart with Park Place slightly ahead, 5-4. Park Place widened the gap to 7-5 in the fourth chukka and the fifth chukka was a real battle which saw the scores tied at 8-8 going into the last chukka. As the clock ticked down and spectators moved to the edge of their seats, the scores remained nerve-rackingly tied at 8-8 for the first few minutes; as the minutes slipped away it was Hilario Ulloa who picked up the ball and worked through the traffic to find the posts, 9-8. La Dolfina/ Marqués de Riscal refused to give up, but Park Place ran down the clock to finally lift The Cartier Queen’s Cup on the fifth time of asking. Ulloa was named Most Valuable Player and his pony, Why Not I’m Easy was chosen as Best Playing Pony, which it also took in the Semi Finals.
A full report and social pictures from the day will be included in the next issue of Polo Times, please call 01452 730770 to renew your subscription today.
The Cartier Queen’s Cup Final Teams:
Park Place (22): Andrey Borodin (0), Rufino Bensadon (7), Hilario Ulloa (9) & Rosendo Torreguitar (6)
La Dolfina/ Marqués de Riscal (22): Luis Aznar (0), Lucas Criado Jr. (7), Rufino Merlos (5) & Poroto Cambiaso (10)
Photograph: Park Place celebrate a long awaited win in The Cartier Queen's Cup. By Pablo Ramirez
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