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: just minutes from the famous resort, the Saanenland could be the setting for a chic, contemporary version of Heidi. 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. Just a few kilometres from its grand hotels, luxury boutiques and picturesque streets, where the teams will parade on Friday (August 21 at 4:00 p.m.), polo is played here 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 Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the hugely popular Indian cinema classic starring Bollywood icons Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. 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, the former 10-goaler, the highest possible rating in polo. Gstaad, however, will be a first.
His record gives some idea of the calibre of player making his debut in the Swiss Alps: 21 victories across the three tournaments of the Argentine Triple Crown and 34 major titles won in Argentina, the United States, France and England.
“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.”
And he is not coming to Switzerland simply to admire the mountains. 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 Palermo. A finalist last year, he makes no secret of the goal:
“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, many from gaucho families – mingle naturally with great players, many of whom also breed their own horses; 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.
These are worlds that rarely meet elsewhere. Here, polo brings them together around one shared passion: the horse.
For twenty-one years, Pierre Genecand has presided over this unusual machinery. A former president of the CHI Geneva, a show jumper for forty years and, at 76, still a polo player whenever he is in Argentina, his second equestrian passion led him to take charge of the Hublot Polo Gold Cup Gstaad with the same energy that helped establish Geneva as one of the world’s leading riders’ favourite indoor shows.
Behind the event’s highly polished image lies a surprisingly small-scale organisation: the committee numbers just thirteen people, many of them local residents.
One week before the first throw-in, everything is ready. Only the unpredictable Alpine weather remains beyond anyone’s control. Pierre Genecand prefers to smile and repeat one of his favourite observations: “The mountains are beautiful in summer too.”
And from 20 to 23 August, they may look more beautiful still, enhanced by one of the finest spectacles horses can offer: polo in Gstaad.
