This year’s Coronation Cup match will be moved from Guards Polo Club to Cowdray Park in Midhurst, Sussex, following the Guards club’s decision to suspend all polo this season due to the current FMD outbreak.
The Coronation Cup is usually the highlight of Cartier International Day – the most important event in the British polo calendar.
However, a Brazilian team, made up of Fabio Diniz (8 goals), Ubajara Andrade (7), Luis Eduardo Cunha (6) and Sylvio Andrade Coutinho (4) will face a English team on Sunday, 29 July on Cowdray’s number one ground.
“We are in the planning stages at the moment, but we hope to run a Cartier-style day, with a match in the morning too,” said David Woodd, chief executive of the Hurlingham Polo Association, the organiser of International Day. “We are holding an international meeting later this month to discuss who will represent England and so I hope that we can announce our team in early June.”
Cartier, who will not be involved in this altered fixture, has however, renewed its contract with the HPA, and will continue to support International Day at Guards for another three years from 2002.