GASTON DORIGNAC
A native of Argentina, Dorignac’s father is the legendary Gaston Dorignac (Sr.), an Argentine Open winner. Before devoting himself to umpiring, Dorignac had a 20-year-long association with polo as a professional player. A resident of Madrid, Spain, he has for long officiated as the president of the Spanish Polo Referees Association. Apart from that Dorignac holds a category A designation from the Asociación Argentina de Polo and is qualified to officiate at a maximum handicap level of 40 goals. Dorignac’s time on an umpire’s horseback began in 1996, and by 1999 he was already umpiring in Argentina’s Triple Crown of Polo at Tortugas, Hurlingham and Palermo. By the close of 1999, he had the honour of officiating at seven of the eight games played in the Argentine Open in Palermo, including the much-anticipated final. As of late 2020, he has umpired more than 20 finals in the Triple Crown, including six in Palermo, as well as eight King’s Cup finals in Madrid, eight finals in the Puerta de Hierro, five Sotogrande Gold Cups and numerous international tournaments.
ALEJANDRO GARCIA DEL RIO
Garcia Del Rio has been involved with polo for a long time. An Argentinian, like many of his countrymen, he grew up on a bucolic countryside farm, playing polo with his father and two elder brothers. He had a six-goal handicap as a professional player.
In his early 20s, Garcia Del Rio moved to Chile with his father to work in the advertising sector. But his calling for polo soon resulted in him having to travel constantly to participate in tournaments across different countries. In the mid-1980s, he was invited to play in an eight-goal tournament in Newport, Rhode Island. It was the youngster’s very first tournament in the US, and he won. During his polo career, Alejandro competed in most of the prestigious tournaments the USPA has to offer. After years spent travelling back and forth between Argentina, Chile and the United States, he decided to call the latter home. During his time in the US, Garcia Del Rio has been involved in building polo clubs from scratch and single-handedly growing skilled teams. After gaining years of experience in both playing and umpiring polo, he joined the USPA Umpires in 2019, to guide a new generation of players to glory in the sport.
FERGUS GOULD
A third-generation Australian player, Gould has always wanted to explore the magic of polo beyond the bounds of his countryside hometown of Goondiwindi in Australia. His first breakthrough came when he travelled to Britain right after finishing school, which eventually paved his path to a successful career in umpiring. Gould took a year off before starting university, to play at Cowdray Park Polo Club in England, but it turned into nearly five years. He did thereafter head to the Massey University of New Zealand for one year to study veterinary science but gave up on academics considering that by then he had long realised his passion for polo. During his professional playing career that lasted for about 15 years, he went on to lift several prestigious titles including the Australian Open, the Queensland Gold Cup and the Canadian Open. He stopped competing professionally in 2015. Before plunging himself completely into the area of umpiring, he had undertaken rookie umpiring around the world, particularly in France and Malaysia. He also umpired many of the FIP World Polo Championship qualifiers in the Dominican Republic and most recently the finals in Chile and Australia. Apart from that he also umpired the Snow Polo World Cup in Tianjin, China. Gould turned to full-time umpiring with USPA. He has been the US Western Regional Umpire Director since 2019.
STEVE EVANS
Steve Evans is a native of Johannesburg, South Africa. As a young boy, he grew up playing polo with his father and two younger brothers, Steve eventually reached a 4-goal handicap as a player. Despite finding recognition as a player, Evans found his calling in umpiring. Steve was introduced to umpiring by the late, great Tim Keyte, who inspired him to pursue a career in umpiring. Throughout his career, he has umpired in numerous countries, including England, New Zealand, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Zambia and Zimbabwe among others. He is currently the head of umpiring for the South African Polo Association. Outside of his life as an umpire, Evans jointly owns a polo mallet manufacturing enterprise with his wife, called the Proline Polo.
ROBIN SANCHEZ
While polo umpiring has always been considered a bastion of male dominance, Sanchez might beg to differ here. She’s part of a new wave of women umpires ushering in an era of greater gender equality in Polo. Robin Sanchez grew up receiving training under some of the most renowned coaches of all time – including Corky Linfootg, Graham Thomas and Rege Ludwig among others. Even as a young player, Sanchez had always dreamt of having the ability to pass on the magic of the sport to the younger generation. She achieved that by coaching the Florida Junior Polo program from 2000-2007 to success.
Apart from that, she has also been credited with efficiently running several polo clubs across the U.S. Interestingly, she spent many years as a Field Director for the Polo Training Foundation.
She is a Certified Horsemanship Association Master Instructor and ACI certifier, an AQHA Professional Horseman, and a Hurlingham Polo Association certified overseas polo instructor. She is a CPR/First Aid/AED Instructor and an ASEP-certified sports coach. Sanchez has also been trained as an EMT and an ImPACT test proctor.
Presently, she is a professional umpire with the USPA, having played an instrumental role in the growth of the Texas Arena League.
