While Sotogrande was becoming known as a premier golfing destination, it also began to build its reputation as the epicentre of European polo. The sport was first played at Sotogrande’ s Santa Maria Polo Club in 1965 and it forms a major part of Sotogrande’ s vision for the future, in a resort that is becoming an oasis for equine sport.
The polo club’ s biggest event is the Gold Cup, the culmination of the International Polo Tournament in August. It is considered Spain’ s elite sporting event and it draws some 90,000 spectators each summer, among them royals, celebrities and business leaders from around 50 different countries.
Ringing endorsement came earlier this year when Gold Cup became part of the World Polo Tour. It means Sotogrande is just one of three venues outside of Argentina to host a Grand Slam polo competition and places the Gold Cup on a par with the US Open and British Open.
This promotion to polo’ s super-league will ensure the biggest names in the game continue to be drawn to Sotogrande, among them the world’ s number one, Adolfo Cambiaso, who joined in the celebration of the Gold Cup’ s 45th edition this year playing for Team Dubai, as well as many of the polo club’ s founding members.
The polo club hosts at least 25 tournaments a year, and it is the only polo club in the world to have the capacity to host 32 teams on its nine fields, four of them in the World Class category. Each year, some 220 teams, 800 players and 2,500 horses flock to the polo club, which is as much the hub of social life in Sotogrande as the scene of some highly charged battles on the field.
This year, that included spirited competition between 350 polo-playing lawyers from all round the world- participants in the annual Lawyers Tournament, which is held each year in one of the world’ s most spectacular polo clubs – and in 2016, that venue was Sotogrande’ s Santa Maria. As the event’ s founder, lawyer Eduardo Bérèterbide, comments:“ Santa Maria is one of the best polo clubs in the world and always attracts the best players in the world. It is without a doubt an ideal place to hold first-class events.”
With Sotogrande able to boast the same in its sailing and golf, it is a sporting estate that stands in a class of its own.
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