Notable players across the eras.

A note on the numbers: Argentine Open line-ups and handicaps below come from Wikipedia's champions table, which records each player's handicap in the year his team won. They show what a player was rated at that time, not his rating today.

At a glance

The early internationals

John Watson played back for Great Britain in the first Westchester Cup in 1886 and again in 1900, according to the Hurlingham Polo Association's (HPA) results. Foxhall Keene, an American, played in the 1886, 1900 and 1902 Westchester Cups and was on Foxhunters Hurlingham, the team Olympedia records as winning the 1900 Olympic gold. Walter Buckmaster won Olympic silver twice, in 1900 with BLO Polo Club, Rugby, and in 1908 with Hurlingham. Olympedia says Jack, Lord Wodehouse and Frederick Barrett, Irishmen who played for Great Britain, are the only polo players with two Olympic medals including a gold.

For the United States, Harry Payne Whitney and Devereux Milburn played on the teams that won the Westchester Cup at Hurlingham in 1909 and at Meadow Brook in 1911.

Tommy Hitchcock Jr.

Olympedia gives Tommy Hitchcock Jr.'s birth as 11 February 1900 in Aiken, South Carolina. He held a 10-goal handicap for 18 years between 1922 and 1940, every year except 1935. He won Olympic silver with the United States in 1924 and played for his country in nearly every international from 1920 to 1940; his teams lost only the 1936 Cup of the Americas. In 1935 he won the US Open with Greentree, beating Aurora 6-5.

His life outside polo was as eventful. Olympedia says that in the First World War he flew with the Lafayette Escadrille, was shot down and captured, escaped by jumping from a train, reached Switzerland and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In 1942 he was assistant air attaché at the US embassy in London. He died in an army aircraft crash near Salisbury, England. Olympedia, and Britannica as given in a search summary, date his death to 19 April 1944; Wikipedia gives 18 April 1944.

Juan Carlos Harriott Jr.

The Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame says Juan Carlos Harriott Jr. reached 10 goals in 1961 and kept that rating until he retired in 1980, aged 44, and that Time magazine called him "the Pelé of polo" that year. The museum credits him with 20 Argentine Opens, including 10 in a row, 15 Hurlingham Opens, and four Cup of the Americas wins as Argentina's captain. For the Tortugas Open the sources differ: the museum says he won 8, Wikipedia says 7.

His 20 Argentine Opens, won between 1957 and 1979, are still the record as of the 2025 edition, according to Wikipedia, though one count of Cambiaso's titles (below) would put him level. He was part of the 1975 Coronel Suárez team of four 10-goal players, with Alberto Heguy, Horacio Heguy and Alfredo Harriott, the first 40-goal team in the event. A USPA tribute, which we saw only as a search summary, reports that he died on 11 September 2023, aged 86, in Coronel Suárez.

Polo families

The Heguys

Horacio Heguy Sr. won 19 Argentine Opens (a footnote in Wikipedia's table suggests possibly 20) and Alberto Heguy Sr. won 17. The family team, Indios Chapaleufú, won the Open in 1986, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995 and 2001, and as Indios Chapaleufú II in 1996, 1999, 2000 and 2004. The 1993 winners were four Heguys all rated 10: Bautista, Gonzalo, Horacio Jr. and Marcos. The family is still playing at the top level. The Buenos Aires Herald noted that Antonio and Cruz Heguy, great-grandsons of Horacio Heguy, played for the losing side in the 2025 Argentine Open final, and Cowdray Park named Cruz Heguy Most Valuable Player when Gaston won the 2026 Gold Cup.

The Novillo Astradas

La Aguada won the 2003 Argentine Open with four brothers, Javier, Eduardo Jr., Miguel and Ignacio Novillo Astrada, rated 9, 9, 9 and 7 that year.

The Pieres family

Gonzalo Pieres Sr. and Alfonso Pieres won the Argentine Open with La Espadaña in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990. The 1989 and 1990 teams, with Carlos Gracida and Ernesto Trotz Jr., were rated at 40 goals. Gonzalo Sr. won again with Ellerstina in 1994, 1997 and 1998.

His son Facundo Pieres was born on 19 May 1986 in Buenos Aires and reached 10 goals at 18, according to Wikipedia. He won the Open with Ellerstina in 2008, 2010 and 2012, alongside his brother Gonzalo Jr., and with La Natividad in 2023 and 2024. Wikipedia says the World Polo Tour ranked him number one in October 2022 and second, behind Adolfo Cambiaso, in early 2023. In the 2025 final, the Buenos Aires Herald reports, he and Gonzalo Jr. played for Ellerstina-Indios Chapaleufú, and Facundo was injured in the eighth chukka.

The Castagnolas

Bartolomé Castagnola Sr. won the Open with Ellerstina in 1997 and 1998 and with La Dolfina in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009, and was rated 10 by 2006. The brothers Camilo and Bartolomé Castagnola Jr. won with La Natividad in 2023, when both were rated 10, and in 2024, and with the combined La Natividad-La Dolfina team in 2025.

Adolfo Cambiaso

Wikipedia gives Adolfo Cambiaso's birth as 15 April 1975 in Cañuelas, Argentina, and says he co-founded La Dolfina with Bartolomé Castagnola around 2000. When he reached 10 goals is disputed. Wikipedia says it was after the 1994 Argentine Triple Crown, which made him the youngest 10-goal player. A polo magazine archive, seen only in a search summary, says England and the United States raised him to 10 for 1993, with Argentina following about two years after 1994.

The Buenos Aires Herald reported on 8 December 2025 that the 132nd Argentine Open was Cambiaso's 19th title and his fifth Triple Crown, won at age 50 with a 40-goal team: Cambiaso, his son Adolfo, and Camilo and Bartolomé Castagnola. An ESPN preview published on the day of the final had already credited him with 19 titles, which would make the 2025 win his 20th. Wikipedia's table puts his titles from 1994 to 2025, the longest span between a player's first and latest win, at 31 years. His son became the event's youngest winner in 2022, aged 17 years and 6 days. His daughter Mia Cambiaso and her sister Myla played for Yaguara, winners of the 2026 Ladies British Open at Cowdray.

Other names in the record

• Carlos Gracida of Mexico won the Argentine Open five times, according to Wikipedia's article on him, which calls him one of three players from outside Argentina to have won it. The champions table shows him with La Espadaña from 1987 to 1990, rated 10 by 1989, and with Ellerstina in 1994.
• Pablo Mac Donough and Alfredo Harriott have 13 Argentine Open titles each, and Juan Martín Nero and Enrique Alberdi 12 each, as of the 2025 edition, per Wikipedia.
• Howard and Julian Hipwood formed the core of England's International Day teams through the 1970s and early 1980s, according to the HPA's results.

Leading women

Claire Tomlinson became the first woman in the world to reach five goals, in 1986, according to Somerville College. Nina Clarkin won the 2003 Cowdray Gold Cup with Hindon and holds the HPA's top women's handicap of 10 (Wikipedia); Cowdray called her the world's top-ranked woman player in July 2026, while the Argentine Polo Association rated her 8 on its women's scale for 2026. Hazel Jackson was described by Tempus in June 2025 as a 10-goal woman player and the women's world number one. Their stories are told in full on the women in polo page. For the players at the top of the game this season, see top players.