The Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly hosted an extraordinary celebration to mark the 90th birthday of the club’s founder, Patrick Guerrand-Hermes, a visionary and one of the most outstanding personalities of polo in France. Patrick has devoted his life to growing polo in his country, and in the process he became a remarkable figure in the international polo community.

The celebration started with a polo match played on the club’s number one ground 1 in Apremont, 30 minutes away from Paris. At 90-years-young, Patrick Guerrand-Hermes took to the field to play in an unforgettable day. Alongside him were his two grandsons, Slava and Lucien, as well as players and friends who have played with him along the years, including Fati Reynot Blanco, Horacio Heguy Jr., Gaston Gassiebayle, Jean-Edouard Mazery, Diego Braun, Nacho Terejina and Brieuc Rigaux.

Patrick Guerrand-Hermes is known as the man who had the great idea of spreading French polo around the world and make it accesible to the public. In 1996 he founded the Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly, in Apremont, on the perfect land for polo fiends, chosen by Baron Robert de Rothschild in 1920. These lands were granted to Patrick Guerrand-Hermes and a group of friends, in 1995, when they obtained a 50-years lease from the Institute of France to create the club, close to the City of Lights and surrounded by the breathtaking landscape of the splendid Chateau de Chanitlly. From then onwards, the Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly has been developing and growing quickly, not only by adding more and more tournaments but also by improving in level, thanks to the some of the greatest players in the world who went to play. Today the club is one of the three most important in France, and the site of the most prestigious competition in the country: the Open de France.

Joyeux Anniversaire, Patrick!

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Celebration of Patrick Guerrand-Hermes 90th birthday in Chantilly