Lucky goals number 13 take all the Pieres through to the USPA Piaget Gold Cup Final
By Victoria Elsbury-Legg
There can be no doubting that yesterday at the International Polo Club Palm Beach the number 13 was a lucky one if your surname happened to be Pieres, or indeed if you were a member of the team in which they were playing in the semis of the USPA Piaget Gold Cup held on the pitches in Palm Beach. Under the Florida sun, a pair of great, high action, semi-finals took place on Wednesday 18th March to decide who would be taking the two much coveted spots in Sunday’s Gold Cup Final.
Cantering first onto Field 3 were Audi Polo Team (Marc Ganzi, Gonzalito Pieres, Rodrigo Andrade and Freddie Mannix) and Las Monjitas (Segundo Merlos subbing for Camilo Bautista, Facundo Sola, Sebastian Merlos and Eduardo Astrada). As always only four of the eight mounted players on the pitch could make it through, and despite strong play and double figures being put on the scoreboard by both teams, it was the team in red sporting the interlinking four rings emblem who could not be stopped in their tracks as they put the winning thirteenth goal between the posts – and the first of the Pieres family through to Sunday’s Final.
More exciting Palm Beach action followed at 4.30pm (brought to the UK at 8.30pm via Horseplay Productions on Polo TV at www.hurlinghampolo.com – and if you missed any of the play you can check out the videos on the Hurlingham Polo website) as next, onto Field 5 this time, rode Orchard Hill (Steve Van Andel, Facundo Pieres, Polito Pieres and Ezequiel Martinez Ferrario) and Alegria Assist Card (Julian Mannix, Hilario Ulloa, Mariano Aguerre and Sterling Giannico). Once again both teams had only the golden cup in their sights as they raced the length of the pitch putting goal after glowing red goal on the digital board. Neck and neck at 12 all, the match went into overtime, during which, in chukka number seven, another team with the seemingly unstoppable Pieres’ in their line up found another lucky number 13 goal, putting Orchard Hill through to join Audi Polo Team in the Piaget USPA Gold Cup Final at 3pm on Sunday 22nd March 2015.
For live coverage of the matches brought to you by Horseplay Productions tune into Polo TV at www.hurlinghampolo.com
Sunday 22nd March 2015
12pm Engel & Völkers Tesoro Cup Final (4pm UK time)
Coca Cola v Engel & Völkers
3pm USPA Piaget Gold Cup Final (7pm UK time)
Audi v Orchard Hill