Engel & Völkers French Open

3SEPT

FINAL 19

SEPT

Where: Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly

La Magdeleine

Mastery Engel & Völkers French Open

The Engel & Völkers French Open finalists were La Magdeleine and Kazak, who on paper were two evenly matched teams – Kazak were unbeaten and La Magdeleine had won all but one of their matches. However, on the day La Magdeleine, assisted by Most Valuable Player Facundo Fernandez Llorente, dominated from the outset, outscoring Kazak 4-1 in a fast-paced first chukka and by the end of the match had streaked ahead to secure a 12-5 win.

Engel & Völkers French Open Final Teams

La Magdeleine (16)

Alexandre Garese (0) Lucas Nottin (2) Facundo Fernandez Llorente (7) Tito Ruiz Guiñazu (7)

Kazak (16)

Sébastien Aguettant (0) Patrick Paillol (5) Jero Del Carril (7) Santiago Irastorza (4) Chukka Scores: 4-1, 6-1, 7-2, 11-3, 12-5, La Magdeleine beat Kazak La Magdeleine suffered defeat in the qualifying stages at the hands of their finalist rivals, Kazak, who took an 8-6 win on Sunday 5 September; however come Finals day La Magdeleine put things right, Fernandez Llorente, who has already lifted the trophy three times during his career, commented, “It’s true that we were a bit worried because we had lost that first game against today’s opponents. Their team plays hard.

But today I brought out my best mares and we clearly played our best game of the season, we quickly understood that this was our day.”

Undoubtedly a deciding factor in his stellar performance, was Fernandez Llorente’s pony power, which was an enviable selection of 10 goaler Pablo Mac Donough’s top ‘Formula 1’ ponies who made the difference on the day; one of these spectacular ponies – La Irenita Loli – was named Best Playing Pony.

MVP

Facundo Fernandez Llorente

BPP

Photography by ©RB Presse La Irenita Loli, played by Facundo Fernandez Llorente and owned by Pablo Mac Donough