US Open Polo Champions

History

The U.S. Open Polo Championship, first played in 1904 at Van Courtland Park, celebrated its centennial in 2004. It is one of the three great polo tournaments, along with the British and Argentine championships. The U.S. Open Polo Championship attracts the finest polo players in the world for a month long competition.

During the first half of the 20th century the U.S. Open Polo Championship was hosted in the Northeast, principally at Meadowbrook Polo Club.

In 1954 the U.S. Open Polo Championship moved to the Oakbrook Polo Club, outside Chicago, where it stayed until 1978.

The next eight U.S. Open Polo Championships were hosted by the Retama Polo Club, in San Antonio, where Memo Gracida recorded the first of his record 16 wins. Not the first in his family to do so, his father and three other Gracida's won the event for Mexico in 1946 at the Meadowbrook Polo Club.

In 1987, the U.S. Open Polo Championship was played at the El Dorado Polo Club in Palm Springs.

The next four U.S. Open Polo Championships were played at Horsepark in Lexington, Kentucky.

Since 1996, The U.S. Open Polo Championship has been held in south Florida.

In 2005, Julio Gracida added to the Gracida Family's combined record of 36 U.S. Open Polo Championship wins.