In a hotly contested Jockey Club Open semifinal, Alegría (Magoo Laprida, Hilario Ulloa, Lucas Monteverde and Fred Mannix) defeated La Aguada/Las Monjitas (Ignacio Toccalino, Eduardo Novillo Astrada, Miguel Novillo Astrada an
d Alejandro Novillo Astrada) 13-12 in sudden-death overtime on a goal by Fred Mannix on a penalty conversion.
Alegria scored a 14-8 opening Jockey Club Open win over Miramar (Gonzalo Deltour, David Du Plessis, Ignacio Laprida and Ignatius Du Plessis) but struggled with La Aguada/Las Monjitas before winning in overtime, 13-12.
Ellerstina (Polito Pieres, Nicolás Pieres, Gonzalito Pieres and Facundo Pieres) had little trouble with Santa Teresa (Matías Torres Zavaleta, Joaquín Pittaluga, Guillermo Willington and Tomás García del Río) in their first match of the tournament, recording a 15-15 win. On Sunday afternoon they secured a spot in the final against Alegria with a 14-8 win over Magual (Alejandro Muzzio, Francisco Elizalde, Marcos Di Paola and Santiago Toccalino). The loss was the first for Magual in their only game of the tournament.
The final is scheduled to be played on Saturday, September 26 and serves as a precursor of the Argentine high-goal season. Both Ellerstina and Alegria have new lineups with recent 10-goaler Polito Pieres leaving Alegria to play with his cousins on Ellerstina. Alegria brought in Magoo Laprida in an effort to replace Polito Piers, remaining solid with Ulloa, Monteverde and Mannix in the saddle for the team.
The remaining six teams in competition in the Jockey Club Open had an opportunity to see what they were made of before embarking on a trek to try and make their way through the qualifying rounds of play and trying to earn one of two available positions in the field in the Hurlingham and Argentine Opens.