Gonzalo Pieres Sr.

Gonzalo Pieres senior (born December 22, 1955 in Argentina ) is a former Argentine polo player . He reached handicap 10 and won all major tournaments in Argentina, the USA and England during his playing time . He currently has a handicap of 7. He usually played in position 3 (playmaker) and is considered one of the best players in this position.

Life

Gonzalo Pieres was born on December 22, 1955 as the youngest son of Alvaro César "Bary" Pieres and his wife Inés Garrahan. His grandfather co-founded the Tortugas Country Club in 1927 and was a well-known horse breeder. Alvaro Pieres and Gonzalo's older brothers also played polo, so it is not surprising that the youngest son also started playing polo.

He had his first successes when he played for his school, the Colegio San Augustín. At that time he was discovered by Eduardo Moore. In 1975, when he was 19 years old, he was already playing for the South America team (Juan José Díaz Alberdi, Héctor Barrantes, Eduardo Moore, Gonzalo Pieres) for the Coronation Cup in England. His team won this trophy and the next three. In 1979 he won the Gold Cup in Cowdray (England) for the first time . He won the Gold Cup three more times, as well as the Queen's Cup (England) and the Gold Cup Deauville (France).

In the USA he played for the White Birch team founded by Peter Brant . The “Polo” magazine wrote about Pieres contribution: “As Gonzalo Pieres goes, so goes White Birch.” He won the Gold Cup USA ten times , several World Cups and three times the America's Cup , an international match between Argentina and the USA. White Birch was thus the dominant team in American polo in the 1980s.

In Argentina he played together with Jorge and Gonzalo Tanoira initially for the Mar del Plata team , with whom he won the Hurlingham Open twice and the Tortugas Open five times . The team also reached the final of the Argentine Open twice . He then moved to the La Espadaña team ( Carlos Gracida , Alfonso Pieres, Gonzalo Pieres, Ernesto Spy). In 1987 they won the final of the Argentine Open 14-8 against Indios-Chapaleufú. The team remained unbeaten for four years in a row. There were also three wins in Hurlingham and two in Tortugas. La Espadaña also became the first 40-goal team since Coronel Suárez .

After the breakup of La Espadaña, Pieres formed the Ellerston and Ellerstina teams with Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer . Ellerston was to play in Australia and England, Ellerstina in Argentina. In 1992 Ellerstina started in the Argentine season, together with a young Adolfo Cambiaso and Mariano Aguerre . The team was completed by Carlos Gracida , whom Pieres knew from his time at La Espadaña. In 1994 they managed to win the Triple Corona (winning Tortugas, Hurlingham and Argentine Open in one year). In 1997 and 1998 he won the Argentine Open again with Ellerstina.

In his mid-forties, he gradually withdrew as an active player to make way for his sons. But he remained the driving force behind the Ellerstina team.

In 1999 he started the Ellerstina Club polo tournaments (Gold Cup, Silver Cup, Bronze Cup) for team handicaps between 10 and 22.

He returned as a player in 2003 when he jumped in for the injured Matias Mac Donough in the inaugural match of the Argentine Open. In 2006 he played and won the Jockey Club Open with his three sons.

In 2006 he initiated the Argentina Polo Tour together with Adolfo Cambiaso . Since then, it has taken place annually between February and April and includes tournaments in six clubs in Argentina.

Because of his importance to the sport of American polo, Pieres was the first non-American to be inducted into the Polo Hall of Fame (National Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame, Wellington, Florida) in 2008. He is also a successful horse breeder , so the horses of the Ellerstina team come to a large extent from his breeding. As a player, he's made the sport more professional by not stopping at the sidelines for the team. In addition to tactics and selection of players, he knew about the importance of good horses, their breeding and care.

Pieres is married to Cecilia Fernández Piola and has three sons ( Gonzalo , Facundo , Nicolás) and two daughters. He lives in General Rodriguez, Buenos Aires Province .

Web links

• La Historia de Gonzalo Pieres
• Homepage Ellerstina
• History of the Ellerstina Polo Team
• Argentina Polo Tour
• Tournament wins on AAP

Individual evidence

1. ↑ El cuarteto ideal: padre e hijos
2. ↑ Pieres volvió para ser parte de su iniciativa
3. ↑ Admission of G. Pieres into the Hall of Fame ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

literature

• Horace A. Laffaye (Ed.): Profiles in polo - the players who changed the game. McFarland & Comp, Jefferson 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-3702-3