Badrutt's Palace Hotel and Cartier in the final of the Snow Polo World Cup St. Moritz 2017

Team Badrutt's Palace Hotel and Team Cartier are the winners of the two matches on the second day of the Snow Polo World Cup St. Moritz 2017. Frosty and clear weather led to excellent conditions. The 5,000 spectators who gathered on the frozen Lake St. Moritz enjoyed two entertaining and hard-fought polo matches in the Engadin sun.

In the first of two games, Team Badrutt's Palace Hotel faced Team Perrier-Jouët in the Maserati Cup. Melissa Ganzi's team at Badrutt's Palace Hotel showed great skill on the snow. Alejandro Novillo Astrada deserves special mention - you'd think he's playing in St. Moritz for the 10th time and not for the first time.

He is brilliantly supported by the extremely capable young American Jesse Bray, whose forward style and convincing style are invaluable, and by the Swiss Tito Gaudenzi, who seemingly effortlessly but with relentless strength lines one goal after the other for the Badrutt's Palace Hotel team.

Team Perrier-Jouët had something to prove today after losing to Cartier. After Swiss Luca Meier had to take a break yesterday due to a leg injury, he and his brother Fabio were out on the snow together today and attacked together.

Together with their team partners Lucas Labat and Fabian Bolanterio, who played with style and lots of verve, the Perrier-Jouët team delivered a challenging game to the opponents. The clear final score of 6:2 in favour of Team Badrutt's Palace Hotel is indicative of the speed, speed and excitement that the game offered. Team Perrier-Jouët only missed the goal extremely narrowly a few times. The game could very well have ended more closely.

Jesse Bray from Team Badrutt's Palace Hotel, who was delighted with their second win in the tournament, said: “It's great to be in this tournament and I'm overjoyed that the team played so brilliantly. It was a hard-fought game from start to finish.” Luca Meier proved to be a fair loser and commented: “We were a bit unlucky and Team Badrutt's Palace Hotel ended up playing better than us.”

Crowd favorite Maserati

In the second game of the day, Team Cartier, led by last year's winners Dario Musso and Captain Rommy Gianni, faced Team Maserati in the fight for the Deutsche Bank Wealth Management Challenge. Team Cartier, which had beaten Team Perrier-Jouët in the opening game the previous day, was determined to carry the momentum into the second day and secure a place in the final for the Cartier Trophy on Sunday.

Despite the defeat against Team Badrutt's Palace Hotel the previous day, Team Maserati won the hearts of the spectators in St. Moritz with their expressive and impressive game and established themselves as a crowd favorite. The stage was set for another Snow Polo World Cup epic.

Although both teams were putting on a lot of pressure, the game was still 0-0 at the end of the first Chukka. For the first time in this tournament, no goal was scored in the first Chukka. Team Cartier found their former strength in the second Chukka when Chris Hyde and Dario Musso played their characteristically sharp game and thus raised the score to 3-0.

Musso's second goal was a special highlight: He took over the ball at his own goal line to ride the ball across the entire field at a straight gallop.

At the start of the third Chukka, Musso was still in top form. He demonstrated this with a goal from the 50-yard line, his hat trick in this game. Team Maserati responded promptly with an impressive goal from James Beh, who got his sons going.

In the fourth Chukka, Team Maserati played passionately and offered the audience a lot that had rallied behind their favorite. Despite an impressive goal from Chevy Beh, Team Maserati was no longer able to catch up with Team Cartier, which secured their place in the final with the final score of 6:2.

On Sunday, Maserati will play against Perrier-Jouët (12:00 h); Cartier and Badrutt's Palace Hotel will be the tournament winner in the final game (14:15 h).

Press images from the Snow Polo World Cup St. Moritz 2017 are available for free download for editorial use: www.flickr.com/photos/snowpolostmoritz/