Ayala bags polo Gold Cup in Spain

MANILA, Philippines — It was a fitting farewell for Ayala team captain Inigo Zobel who capped a colorful high goal career by recently riding to a championship finish in the Gold Cup final at the Santa Maria Polo Club in Sotogrande, Spain, with His Majesty King Juan Carlos awarding the trophy to the Filipino business tycoon.

Zobel, 60, formalized his retirement from high goal competition after Ayala beat La Indiana, 13-8, to claim the Gold Cup, the most prestigious jewel of the 46th Torneo Internacional de Polo. The victory was a full-circle milestone as Zobel won the trophy 10 years after his last win in Sotogrande whose polo pitch was built by his father Enrique in 1965 and is known as the Wimbledon of the Sport of Kings.

Polo is played using a handicap system to make games more evenly matched. Players are rated on a scale of -2 to 10. Less than 24 elite players in the world carry the highest handicap of 10. Teams are classified according to the total handicap of four players. A low goal match is when the total handicap is between -8 to 8, medium goal between 12 to 15 and high goal 18 upwards.

Ayala’s highest handicap player was Argentinian Facundo Pieres with 10. Others in the team were Santiago Laborde 6, Gregorio Gelosi 4 and Zobel 0. For La Indiana, Agustin (Tincho) Merlos had a handicap of 8, Juan Gris Zavaleta 8, Byron Watson 3 and Michael Bickford 1.

Zobel first joined the high goal competition with the Santa Maria squad in 2001 then formed the Ayala team which won the title in its debut in 2007. The Gold Cup used to be known as the Internacional Copa de Oro but was renamed Copa de Oro Fundador Enrique Zobel after the patriarch’s death in 2004. The Copa de Oro is the equivalent of the Queen’s Cup or Gold Cup in England and the King of Spain has awarded the trophy over the last two years.

“It’s a very important title for me as I’m retiring from the high goal so I’m very happy to have won the Gold Cup,” said Zobel who rode his 14-year-old favorite “Grasa” to victory. Although now retired from high goal competition, Zobel said he will continue to play low goal matches.

Pieres, 31, said this year’s win was significant. “We all want to win every match of course but this one was extra special as it was Inigo’s last one in the high goal,” he said. “When Inigo invited me to play with him last year, he told me he was going to play for two more years then retire from high goal competition and that he would love to win the Gold Cup. We knew it was important for him as it was for us so this was a big achievement for any player. We played well, we had a good plan and we knew what to do. We started the game on top, that was the key.”

Ayala raced to a 3-0 lead in the first chukker but La Indiana made it close with goals from Merlos and Zavaleta. But there was no stopping Ayala. Pieres took MVP honors and his mare “Cube” was named the Best Playing Pony. 

Zobel, who started playing polo at 13, has seen action in fields all over the world – in Brunei, Malaysia, US, Australia and of course, Sotogrande. “I was influenced (to play polo) by my grandfather and father who both played polo and loved the breeding of horses,” said Zobel whose most memorable competition was the 2007 Copa de Oro where he led Ayala to its first championship.

While King Juan Carlos awarded the trophy to Zobel, his daughter Her Royal Majesty Infanta Elena presented the Best Playing Pony prize. “It was a well-deserved victory for a team that maintained an incredible level the entire season,” noted a press release from Sotogrande.