St Moritz – Wonderful polo for a worthy cause
With the finalists for the 26th St. Moritz Polo World Cup on Snow already decided from Friday’s results, day three of the tournament on Saturday provided the opportunity for teams to try out new tactics and pony combinations ahead of Sunday’s two big showdowns.
In Saturday’s opening game, the main beneficiaries of the sides’ new approaches was certainly the two patrons. Maserati’s Philipp Maeder and Brioni’s Amr Zedan scored six of the game’s 12 goals between them, including a number of excellent individual goals and well-taken penalties that their professionals would have been proud of. Brioni won 7-5, but Maeder was in buoyant mood after the match. “I had a lot of fun out there!†he declared over lunch in the VIP marquee, where he lapped up the plaudits of the appreciative Swiss crowd.
The day’s second game was also a treat for the spectators, as the two contenders for this year’s Mallet d’Or trophy met for a dress rehearsal of Sunday’s main event. Anxious not to exhaust their horses by playing them on the lake any longer than was necessary, they played out the tournament’s highest-scoring and most open encounter so far. With the pressure off, some of the game’s best players demonstrated their whole range of skills as Cartier snuck a narrow 8-7 victory. The stage is set for a thrilling finale.
Further interest was added for the spectators by the announcement early in the game that every Julius Baer goal would raise 1,000 Swiss Francs for The James Wentworth-Stanley Memorial Fund, a charity set up by Clare Milford Haven and her ex-husband Nick Wentworth-Stanley following the sudden and untimely death of their son James in December 2006. The total raised was then boosted after the game, when a generous Julius Baer client agreed to double their total. Julius Baer scored seven goals (including two from Clare’s husband George), raising CHF 14,000 in total for the worthy cause and giving plenty of reason to celebrate for the Julius Baer camp despite defeat.