Weekend in Wellington – USPA Gold Cup final takes top billing

Today’s USPA Gold Cup final is significant for its participants as Coca-Cola and Park Place both seek to add the title of the tournament to their résumés. The U.S Polo Assn. Number One field will also be conspicuous by the absence of father and son Poroto and Adolfo Cambiaso. It will be the first Gauntlet of Polo final without either of them since the US Open Polo Championship in 2022 – one or both have won six of the previous seven high-goal tournaments at the National Polo Center.

Polito Pieres is firing on all cylinders for Coca-Cola this season. Photo: Alex Pacheco

Andrey Borodin’s Park Place line-up is spearheaded by ten-goal Hilario Ulloa, who relies on 19-year-old Louis Hine from England, making his high goal debut in Wellington this winter, as well as polo prodigy, Mariano “Peke” Gonzalez Jr. who just turned 26.

Park Place ready for a shot at the USPA Gold Cup title. L to r: Louis Hine, Hilario Ulloa, Andrey Borodin and Peke Gonzalez. Photo: David Lominska

Gillian Johnston is the sole female player in the USPA Gold Cup and a useful goal scorer in the number one position for her team Coca-Cola. She depends on Polito Pieres to steer the ship, also manned by 17-year-old Wellington high-goal rookie Lorenzo Chavanne and Julian de Luserreta who returned to the high goal this season after being sidelined with injury last winter.

The Gauntlet of Polo is a series of three back-to-back high goal tournaments and only once has a team taken the trio and the title – when Pilot pulled off the feat in the Gauntlet’s inaugural year in 2019. Poroto and La Dolfina/Catamount were knocked out in the semis of the USPA Gold Cup by Park Place. Adolfo Cambiaso won the opening tournament – the C.V. Whitney Cup – setting himself up for a run at the Gauntlet of Polo – a polo achievement that has so far eluded the world’s most renowned player. His son headed him off at the pass, when La Dolfina/Catamount defeated La Dolfina/Tamera in the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup.

The game will be livestreamed with Pilot Captain, nine-goal Facundo Pieres as guest commentator.

https://www.uspolo.org/uspa-videos/livestream-schedule

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