The Cartier World Polo Cup on Snow, held in St. Moritz, was the first tournament of the World Polo Tour calendar 2009.
Julius Baer Polo Team, comprised of George Milford Haven, Jose Donoso, Pablo Mac Donough and Richard Le Poer beat defending champions, Brioni, 6-3_. The victory established them, for the first time, as the Cartier World Polo Cup on Snow champions. On the occasion, the competition was celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Thus, after the initial tournament, the first WPT positions are as follows:
Pos. Player Nationality Points
1 Cambiaso, Adolfo Argentina 874
2 Mac Donough, Pablo Argentina 716
3 Pieres Jr., Gonzalo Argentina 686
4 Novillo Astrada Jr., Eduardo Argentina 644
5 Pieres, Facundo Argentina 593
6 Stirling Jr., David Uruguay 551
7 Aguerre, Mariano Argentina 538
8 Nero, Juan Martin Argentina / Italy 528
9 Monteverde, Lucas Argentina 493
10 Castagnola, Bartolome Argentina 451
After participating in the 25th Cartier World Polo Cup on Snow, Chilean player Jose Donoso was chosen MVP of the Month of January, due to his good performance throughout the first World Polo Tour tournament.
The WPT Snow Polo Tour will continue in Italy in a few days, when the Cortina d´Ampezzo Gold Cup 2009 begins, in which 70 points will be awarded to each player belonging to the winning team.
World Polo Tour
The World Polo Tour (WPT) is the offical circuit of the main polo tournaments around the world.
The WPT produces the international ranking of Polo Players. Each player is being ranked according to their performance, during the course of the year, in the main tournaments around the world.
The system came up as the result of the urge, by players and club managers, to create a circuit that reflects the best Polo in the World.
There are four levels of tournaments; Challenger, Cup, Masters and Grand Slam, plus the Master Series which is only for professional polo players.
In order to determine the category of each tournament, several aspects are taken into consideration: The handicap of the tournament, the place, the organization, the amount of teams entered and the level of players participating and the amount of spectators attending the last editions.
The lists of tournaments are being reviewed every year in order to reflect the reality of the International Circuit.
The WPT tournaments receives coverage from all media specialized in polo as well as other media covering daily and general news.