Park Place 15 – 13 Dubai
La Dolfina/Marques de Riscal 11 – 7 King Power
Park Place produced a dominant performance to fire themselves into Sunday’s Cartier Queen’s Cup final. A team that had struggled in their opening match of the tournament delivered a masterclass of teamwork today that proved unbeatable. Dubai struggled to contain Andrey Borodin’s team. In fact Park Place’s number three, Hilario Ulloa, got stronger as the game developed. He was brilliantly supported by Rufino Bensadon and Rosendo Torreguitar. The latter was later named the Cartier Most Valuable Player. Meanwhile Bensadon seemed to be everywhere and scored four of his team’s 15 goals. Jeta Castagnola had flashes of his 10-goal brilliance for Dubai but he found it hard to convert fast runs up field into goals. Antonio Heguy kept the pressure on Park Place in the fifth chukka though, halving a six-goal gap. With such class from both teams this was still anyone’s game. Castagnola and Heguy continued to close the gap in the sixth chukka but when Bensadon fired through a fabulous goal for Park Place, with very little time left on the clock, it was clear which team was heading to the final. Ulloa received the Cartier Best Playing Pony prize for his own Why Not I’m Easy, while Borodin was presented with the Kerry Packer Trophy from Packer’s grandson, Jackson Packer, and Laurent Feniou, Managing Director of Cartier UK.
Park Place’s opponents in Sunday’s final will be La Dolfina/Marques de Riscal. This incredibly young team – their average age is 21.5 – played with a confidence way beyond their years. Captained by Poroto Cambiaso, who was later named Cartier’s Most Valuable Player, Luis Aznar’s team took the lead over Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha’s King Power team in the third chukka and never looked back. Tommy Beresford and Pablo MacDonough worked hard to keep King Power’s hopes alive but they couldn’t match the consistency of La Dolfina/Marques de Riscal. Laurent Feniou joined Nathalie Perrodo Samani, Hubert Perrodo’s daughter, to present the Hubert Perrodo Trophy to Aznar. Cambiaso’s Dolfina Misky received the Cartier Best Playing Pony.
