Passion For Luxury : St. Moritz Polo World Cup

Monday, August 20, 2012

St. Moritz Polo World Cup

The ultimate game on snow

St. Moritz is a luxury vacation spot offering spectacular views of some of the very best snow capped mountains. Home to the St. Moritz Polo World Cup, visitors can experience an excellent world of the very best sport that is a combination of elegance, strength, speed and pride and the love of fair play that the British hold so close.

St. Moritz Polo World Cup is played on snow and is one of the most excellent and prestigious of all winter sporting events. A total of four high goal teams take part in the tournament, some of the very best polo players from around the world. Here visitors are able to watch and experience polo played at its very best with a backdrop of stunning luxury scenery. The four teams have handicaps of between 15 and 18 goals as they battle for the much coveted trophy on the beautiful frozen lake of St. Moritz.

On this lake some of the finest nimble polo ponies thunder over the frozen lake ridden by some of the worlds very best polo players from the UK, Argentina, Chile, Australia and numerous other countries. The tournament lasts over a period of four days with two matches of top quality each day. The fourth day of the tournament is the grand final. It is these high level encounters of course require the highest concentration possible along with a fitness level of the very best, endurance and courage. All of these traits are needed by both the players and the ponies. Due to the special conditions that the snow brings and the altitude of 1800 meters, this tournament is unlike any other and places exceptional demands on the pony and rider. Polo in the stunning location of St. Moritz can be dated back to 1899 and this was one of the first venues in continental Europe to establish polo playing. The very first polo field was laid out at St. Moritz Bad after British cavalry officers played the game as part of training and then as a leisure activity. The field was designed with the intent of playing the first ever Alpine polo match, however they were given orders to sail for South Africa before the match could take place.

Following this interest in the game ended for a time with no further games being played. In 1959 the St. Moritz Polo Club was founded and in the 60s a major international tournament was held each summer in St. Moritz. At this time the luxury event attracted 3000 spectators. In 2005 St. Moritz AG became a limited company and took over organizing the St. Moritz Polo World Cup on the snow and brings to you each year stunning Alpine polo matches not to miss!