P O L O I N T H E PA M PA S
Seeing green After success abroad, Polito Pieres sets his sights on Argentina
After winning the 2020 USPA Gold Cup (played in March 2021) and reaching the semifinals in the 2021 Gold Cup and the U.S. Open with La Indiana in Palm Beach, Pablo ‘Polito” Pieres went on to reach the final of the British Open and win the Queen’s Cup with UAE. Polito is continuing his campaign abroad, competing in Sotogrande while already planning Argentina’s high-goal season with La Natividad. His performances, statistics and titles promise an auspicious Triple Crown in Argentina. After your seasons in Palm Beach and England, where are you in your career? In a very good moment. The truth is that in the United States, I had one of the best seasons of my career. Then, England was the icing on the cake, it was amazing. We started with a lot of complications with problems with horses, COVID, field issues, everything. We got the toughest group of all, in England’s toughest year and we ended up winning the Queen’s Cup. It was a dream final against Cambiaso’s Scone. I was even happier to have done it with my cousin Tomy [Tomás Panelo], Maitha [Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum] and Tomy Beresford, who is a great teammate as well and one of the best players out there. Afterwards, it seemed like we weren’t going to get through our group in the Gold Cup because we had already given most of our horses a lot of activity and suddenly we found ourselves in the quarterfinals. We won that game (13-9 against Park Place), we won the semifinal (12-10 against Great Oaks) and ended up in the Gold Cup final. [It was] a dream season where we almost did a ‘double’. I believe that on the last day we were a bit hurt by the rain and the horses, which had already suffered a long season and were not in their best shape. Why do you say that the title in the Queen’s Cup was the most important of your career? Why is it more important to you than the 2012 Gold Cup? It is one of the most important for the players and for the entire UAE organization because we suffered a lot at the beginning: the horses arrived late, we 38 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N
ALICE GIPPS
By Lucas Noel
couldn’t play because the field was very wet, we had some cases of COVID, the group we [drew] was very strong, [and] Maitha fell. There were many adversities and when you start winning in spite of that, it is much more enjoyable. And also to end up beating the team of Poroto and [Adolfo] Cambiaso in the final of the Queen’s Cup adds a lot of prestige. It is very enjoyable that it was against the best player in the world. When it comes to the game analysis, does having beaten Poroto and [Adolfo] Cambiaso in the final add to the achievement? Exactly. Poroto played at an impressive level in the United States. Obviously the fact that it was against them both adds a lot. They came from winning the U.S. Open. It’s always nice to win a tournament against one of the best teams.
