The Perry Cup (1905), symbolic of the East Coast Open Championship.
Patrons and players of the six teams were joined by polo enthusiasts and fans Wednesday evening at America’s oldest jeweler, Shreve, Crump & Low, in Greenwich, CT for the official draw for the 2015 East Coast Open at the Greenwich Polo Club where they will battle for the historic Perry Cup, the tournament’s symbolic title trophy since its inception in 1905.
The six teams were divided into two brackets with Airstream (Peter Orthwein, Guille Aguero, Matias Magrini and Michel Dorignac), Audi (Marc Ganzi, Juancito Bollini, Nic Roldan and Miguel Novillo Astrada)and McLaren Greenwich (Chris Brant, Nick Manifold, Joao Paulo Ganon and Tommy Biddle) forming Bracket 1 while KIG (Bash Kazi, Valerio Zubiaurre, Mariano Obregon and Pelon Escapite), Turkish Airlines (Bruce Colley, Joaquin Panelo, Tomas Garcia del Rio and Stevie Orthwein) and White Birch Farm (Santino Magrini, Hilario Ulloa, Mariano Aguerre and Peter Brant) make up Bracket 2.
The Audi Polo Team traveled the farthest to compete in this year’s East Coast Open, with Argentine 9-goaler Miguel Novillo Astrada flying in from Argentina and team captain Marc Ganzi, Nic Roldan and Juancito Bollini arriving from Colorado where they have been competing at the Aspen Valley Polo Club.
“The Audi Polo Team has had a rich and successful history at the 20-goal level on the West Coast as well as the Florida winter circuit, but has never competed up in the Northeast,” said team captain Marc Ganzi. “At the kind invitation of Peter Brant we felt it was time to introduce the Audi team to Greenwich and the East Coast Open,” he added. “My father also played and won this prestigious cup when it was played at the Myopia Polo Club in Boston and at the Saratoga Polo Club as well, so it has a special place in our family and we believe we have the necessary pieces in place to compete for it.”
Peter Brant’s White Birch team may have other ideas, however, having dominated the tournament over the years and taking the field as the defending champion, and there are four other teams who will be looking to ride off with the Perry Cup as well.
The tournament will be played in accordance with the United States Polo Association’s American System/Cross Bracket. For preliminary matches, each team in Division 1 will play each team in Division 2 and vice versa. Semifinals will take place after all preliminary matches are complete. Each team will be ranked (1-6) based on their win/loss record in preliminary match play. Ties will be decided by shootouts.
Once all 6 rankings are confirmed, the top four ranked teams will advance to the semifinals. The number one ranked team will play the number four ranked team and the number two ranked team will play the number three ranked team.
Opening games will begin with two matches scheduled for play on Saturday, August 22nd with White Birch playing McLaren Greenwich at 1pm followed by a 4pm contest between Airstream and Turkish Airlines.
Three more games are slated to be played on Wednesday August 26th and Thursday, August 27th in the second preliminary round with the third round of preliminary matches scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, August 29th and 30th:
The semifinal games of the 2015 East Coast Open will be played on Wednesday and Thursday, September 3rd and 4th, with the winners meeting one another in the tournament final on Sunday, September 6th.
All preliminary rounds of play and semifinal matches will be livestreamed on ChukkerTV. The East Coast Open final will be broadcast on in a 60-minute program by NBC Sports on Sunday, September 13th at 7pm.