The 20th Anniversary of the French Polo Open is underway in Chantilly

Eight teams will compete in the French Polo Open, which commenced this week

Nine nations and a record number of teams, including some of the world’s most celebrated polo players will participate in the 20th French Polo Open. Having commenced on Friday September 4th, the event will reach a shimmering climax during the Grand Final on September 20th.

The nine nations represented in the 2020 French Open are England, Argentina, the United States, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and of course France. Without forgetting Uruguay – Gaston Lucero will be umpiring 24 matches during the 3 coming weeks, alongside the Argentine Umpire Rafael Silva.

700 horses will be present in Chantilly during the French Open, with eight teams competing in the tournament:

Marqués de Riscal (ESP): the defending champions have just taken home the Deauville Gold Cup. The favourite? “I don’t think so”, measures their captain Alejandro Aznar. “This year there are 7 strong teams in front of us. So, we will come to have fun and play beautiful polo. We won in Deauville, but we also lost 3 games “…

Sainte-Mesme (FRA): winner of the French Open in 2009 and in 2018, the Strom family team has just won the Gold Cup of Sotogrande in Spain.

Les Lions Panarea (USA/GBR): Alongside Barto Castagnola (18 years old and already handicap 9 in his country), one of the greatest hopes of Argentine polo, this great team is clearly the favourite! They have just won the Queen’s Cup 10 days ago in Windsor.

Marquard Media (SUI): Double Champion of the French Open in 2015 and 2016 and recent finalist of the Deauville Gold Cup. They have hired the same composition of players for the 5 past years, team complicity is surely a great advantage for them.

Talandracas (FRA): Édouard Carmignac is coming back to Chantilly after his only but victorious participation in 2002. For this Open, the team has just hired the other phenomenal Argentine player, Jeta Castagnola (16 years old and an 8-goaler in Argentina), brother of Barto.

Majoa Paris (FRA): A team that has won the Open two times. For this edition, they’ll be counting on the talent of a semi-finalist of the Argentine Open, the handicap 8 Guillermo Terrera, alongside one of the two French No. 1 players, Pierre-Henri Ngoumou (h6).

Amanara (NED): First participation for the Dutch captain Nicki Sen, who has called upon the former player of Team Chapa Uno (of the Heguy brothers) and a former 9-goaler, Santiago Chavanne.

Le Pommeraye (FRA): Simply the names of Juan-Gris Zavaleta and Tito Ruiz Guiñazu alone will give you an idea of the competitivity of the Smith’s family team!