For Four Days, Gstaad Breaks into a Gallop
From 20 to 23 August, polo takes over the Saanenland for one of the most distinctive events of the Swiss summer, and of the international polo calendar. Great players, horses, elegance and a certain art of living come together against a backdrop that could have been lifted straight from a postcard. Exactly one week from now, the Hublot Polo Gold Cup Gstaad gets under way. Everything is ready for the first throw-in*, on Thursday at 1.30 pm.
Most sports seem made for stadiums, and stadiums were built for sport. Polo is different. Born around 600 BC on the great plains of Asia, it has always needed space: a polo field can cover the equivalent of up to five football pitches. And somehow, the game takes on another dimension when played amid an extraordinary landscape.
In Gstaad, nature provides one of polo's most spectacular stages. Wooden chalets overflowing with flowers, almost impossibly green meadows and mountain peaks rising in the background. It is here, on a polo field laid out alongside the runway at Gstaad Airport, that horses will take over from 20 to 23 August for four days of top-level polo.
The contrast has long been part of the event's charm. For a few days, Gstaad, one of the Alps' most exclusive resorts, gives way to horses, mallets and polo boots, surrounded by mountains, in an atmosphere that manages to be both elegant and remarkably relaxed.
A cinematic backdrop
The landscape has already enjoyed a screen career of its own. In Saanen, the small stone bridge crossed on the way to the polo ground was made famous by a hugely popular Bollywood classic. More than thirty years after the film's release, fans still come to see it.
Perhaps a small detail, but one that says a great deal about the magnetic appeal of this valley: in the Saanenland, even a simple stone bridge can become an icon.
For four days, another scene will unfold just a few hundred metres away. Four 14-goal teams, 120 horses, sixteen players from Argentina, Switzerland and beyond, and among them one of the defining figures of contemporary polo: Gonzalo Pieres Jr.
Still one of polo's biggest stars
A three-time Argentine Open winner and a finalist at Palermo again last December, Gonzalo Pieres is a former 10-goaler, the highest possible rating in polo. Gstaad, however, will be a first for him: 21 victories across the Argentine Triple Crown and 34 major titles won in Argentina, the United States, France and England give some idea of the calibre of player making his debut in the Swiss Alps.
“It will be my first time playing in Gstaad and I'm really looking forward to discovering it. We have a very competitive team and the goal is clear: to win.”
At 43, “Gonza” Pieres remains as ambitious as ever. After Gstaad, he will reunite with his brother Facundo and cousins Antonio and Cruz Heguy for another assault on the Argentine Open, a title he narrowly missed as a finalist last year.
“We want to win the Argentine Open. That would be another dream come true.”
The luxury of keeping things simple
Perhaps this is where Gstaad best expresses its difference. The tournament attracts champions, international partners and guests from around the world. While all 1,342 VIP hospitality places have long been booked, admission for the general public remains free. Anyone can come and watch some of the world's finest players, grab lunch from the food trucks, wander among the stands or enjoy the children's activities, without buying a ticket.
It is a blend of exclusivity and simplicity that polo, the oldest team sport in the world, perhaps manages better than any other. Around the field, petiseros, the devoted horsemen who care for the ponies, mingle naturally with great players; team captains with captains of industry; regular guests of Gstaad's grand hotels with the occasional celebrity; and families who have simply come along to enjoy the spectacle.
For twenty-one years, Pierre Genecand has presided over this unusual machinery. A former president of the CHI Geneva and, at 76, still a polo player whenever he is in Argentina, he leads the Hublot Polo Gold Cup Gstaad with a small, largely local committee of just thirteen people.
One week before the first throw-in, everything is ready. Only the unpredictable Alpine weather remains beyond anyone's control. As Pierre Genecand likes to say with a smile: “The mountains are beautiful in summer too.”
* Throw-in: the start or restart of play in polo, when the two teams line up opposite one another and the umpire bowls the ball down the channel between them.