FACES OF
POLO
The World’s Top Players Are Back To Compete At IPC This Season Year after year, the International Polo Club Palm Beach attracts the top players in the world — and 2015 is no exception. Nearly every 10-goaler in the game today will be participating in IPC’s 12th season. Adolfo Cambiaso, polo’s top-ranked player in the world, will be returning with Bob Jornayvaz and his Valiente team. Cambiaso won both the 26-goal C.V. Whitney Cup and the USPA Piaget Gold Cup with Valiente last year. Facundo Pieres, currently the No. 2 player in the game today, will be saddling up with Steve Van Andel’s Orchard Hill team. The spectacle of seeing the top two players compete in tournament after tournament continues to draw some of the season’s largest crowds. Juan Martin Nero and Pelon Stirling come in at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions in the world polo rankings. Both players carry 10-goal handicaps, with Nero returning to play with Victor Vargas and Lechuza Caracas, while Stirling will be joining Gillian Johnston and the Coca-Cola lineup. No. 5 player Pablo MacDonough is the only current 10-goaler not scheduled to be in Wellington this winter. He’ll be taking part in 16-goal competitions in Dubai. However, Gonzalito Pieres, ranked at No. 6 in the world, will be returning
to Marc Ganzi’s Audi entry, while Sapo Caset (No. 8) and Santiago Torres (No. 9) will join the Valiente family for the season. Caset recently had his 10-goal rating returned after losing it due to an illness two years ago. Twenty-year-old Torres just had his handicap elevated to seven goals. Nine-goalers Mariano Aguerre and Hilario Ulloa will take the field with Julian Mannix and last year’s U.S. Open Polo Championship Alegria team. Three of the four members of La Dolfina, the 40-goal Argentine Open Championship polo team (Adolfo Cambiaso, Pelon Stirling and Juan Martin Nero) will be on the field this winter. The three will participate in the annual 40-goal charity match to benefit the Polo Players Support Group, along with fellow 10-goalers Facundo Pieres, Gonzalito Pieres (10-goal handicap in Argentina), Sapo Caset and Miguel Novillo Astrada. With virtually every top player in the world competing in the 20-goal and 26-goal competitions, IPC will once again be the place to be for the world’s best polo action. They will join a long list of the elite players in the game today, touting impressive credentials of their own. We take a look at some of these standout stars in this year’s Faces of Polo section. Turn the page to get started.
wellington the magazine | january 2015
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