Facundo Pieres leads the King Power Foxes attack to win in British Open play.
Facundo Pieres continued to impress as he led King Power Foxes (Top Srivaddhanaprabha, Hugo Lewis, Gonzalo Pieres and Facundo Pieres) to a thunderous 19-8 win over Sifani (Hilali Noordeen, Max Charlton, Agustin Merlos and Malcolm Borwick) Sunday morning in second round play in the 2015 Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup for the British Open at Cowdray Park Polo Club.
Play was competitive in the opening chukker with Sifani going up 2-0 on a pair of penalty goals from Agustin Merlos. King Power Foxes countered with goals from brothers Gonzalito Pieres and Facundo Pieres to knot the score at 2-2 to end the first chukker.
King Power Foxes flexed their muscles in the second period as they combined five goals with shutout defense. After two periods of play, King Power Foxes were in control of the match with a 7-2, five goal lead.
The two teams traded goals in the third with Facundo Pieres scoring twice from the field while Merlos converted a pair of penalty goals. At the end of the first half t was King Power Foxes maintaining a five goals lead, 9-4.
Conditions didn’t improve for Sifani in the second half as the Pieres brothers continued to inflict damage on their opponent. King Power Foxes added four more goals to their total, limiting Sifani to a single penalty conversion from Merlos. The King Power Foxes ballooned to eight goals, 13-5, with two periods left to play.
Four more King Power Foxes’ goals in the fifth left Sifani in the dust, with Merlos scoring a single goal in response. The King Power Foxes lead climbed to a commanding eleven goals, 17-6.
The two teams exchanged goals in the final chukker, scoring two goals apiece. King Power Foxes rode of the field with a 19-8 victory and a 2-0 record. Sifani suffered their second consecutive loss and fell to 0-2.
Zacara 21, Talandracas 11
In the most bizarre scenario of the day, Talandracas 4-goaler, Ali Patterson, was sent off the field for the balance of the game following a dangerous riding charge that resulted in Lyndon Lea and horse going to the ground midway through the second chukker.
Talandracas was leading by four goals at the time, 5-1, and finished out the second chukker with a 6-3 lead. The suspension of Patterson for the balance of the match, however, meant that Talandracas would have to play three (Polito Pieres, Sapo Caset and Edouard Carmignac) against a full Zacara (Juan Martin Nero, Lyndon Lea, Rodrigo Andrade and Jack Hyde) side. The move was a death sentence for the Talandracas side who had to decide to either run their horses into the ground, doubling and tripling them up in an effort to score a win or just rolling over and saving the horses for another day.
Zacara edged ahead of Talandracas 8-7 by halftime as the extra effort was taking its toll on the Talandracas horses. Eight more Zacara goals over the next two chukkers had them leading 16-10 going into the sixth.
Token resistance was no longer feigned as the Talandracas players sat on their mounts and watched the Zacara players run up the score. The final horn sounded with Zacara taking home a 21-11 win. Zacara leveled their record at 1-1 while Talandracas suffered their second loss, 0-2.
Dubai 12, Thai Polo 8
In anti-climactic fashion Dubai (Josh Cosh, Martin Valent, Diego Cavanagh and Adolfo Cambiaso) registered a 12-8 win over Thai Polo (Harald Link, Matias Torres Zavaleta, Nic Roldan and Tomas Garcia del Rio) in a battle that was controlled by Dubai from the opening throw-in.
Dubai ran out to an 8-4 halftime lead before galloping off with the 12-8 victory.
The win keeps Dubai unbeaten in two outings (2-0) while Thai Polo suffered their second consecutive loss (0-2).
2015 Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup for the British Open action will continue on Monday with El Remanso (George Hanbury, Charlie Hanbury, Pelon Stirling and Ollie Cudmore) facing La Indiana (Michael Bickford, James Beim, John Paul Clarkin and James Harper).