Autumn 2021 by Hurlingham Polo Magazine

POLO

THE AUTUMN ISSUE 2021

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HURLINGHAM THE AUTUMN ISSUE

CONTENTS 0 7_ P O N Y L I N E S The latest polo news, including the HPA chief executive’s column 12 _ A H A R D A C T T O F O L L O W Honouring David Woodd’s tenure as the chief executive of the HPA 18 _ F R I E N D S F O R E V E R A look at the many benefits of the Friend’s Polo initiative 2 0 _ M A X FA C T O R Ijaz Chaudhry discovers why Pakistan’s polo circuit made a big impression on British international Max Charlton 2 2 _R E I N V E N T I N G T H E W H E E L How eWheels could help to expand the future of polo 2 4 _P E A K P E R F O R M A N C E Justo Santamarina discovers how Kheiron Biotech and Doña Sofía

Band of the Scots Guards performing at the Queen’s Cup final

are leading the way in horse cloning technology 26 _C L U B C L A S S I C The new Polo Rider Cup is an exciting addition to the polo circuit 2 8 _G O I N G F O R G O L D

COVER: NED HINE FOLLOWED BY HIS BROTHER LOUIS. COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: IMAGESOFPOLO.COM T H I S PAG E : I M AG ES O F P O LO.C O M

Brenda Lynn and Brandon Fabel of Florida’s Museum of Polo take a look at the sport’s place in Olympic history 3

3 0 _T H E S K Y ’ S T H E L I M I T We hear from AAP president, Delfin Uranga about his

HURLIN GHAM MAGAZIN E

vision for the future growth of Argentine polo

Publisher Roderick Vere Nicoll Executive Editor Peter Howarth

3 4 _A N O V E L I D E A Asad Jumabhoy outlines a practical format for playing the FIP World Cup

Deputy Chief Copy Editor Lucy Frith

Adam Lindemann met Adolfo Cambiaso just as the star began to rise 4 4 _L I V E S T R E A M A B I G H I T Avery Chenoweth explores the latest in polo livestreaming advances around the world

Contributing Photographer Tony Ramirez S HOW MEDIA Editorial Managing Director Peter Howarth 1-2 Ravey Street, London EC2A 4QP

5 0 _WA L E S F O L L I E S

+ 44 (0) 20 3222 0101 info@show.london show.london

Edward VIII’s 1924 American polo holiday 5 5_A C T I O N The Queen’s Cup; The Gold Cup; The Prince of Wales Trophy; Pacific Coast Open; The Prince of Wales’ Championship Cup

Belgium’s long relationship with the game of polo

Designer Isobel Attrill, Marion Milazzo Chief Copy Editor Holly Quayle

3 8 _I N A L E A G U E O F H I S O W N

6 6 _S T E E P E D I N H I S T O R Y

Editor Jemima Wilson

HURLIN GHAM MEDIA Sales +44 (0) 771 483 6102 hurlingham@hpa-polo.co.uk; hurlinghampolo.com Printing Gemini Press; gemini-press.co.uk

If you would like to unsubscribe or change your postal address, please send an email with your old and new address to hurlingham@hpa-polo.co.uk. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. All the information contained in this publication is correct at the time of going to press. The HURLINGHAM Polo magazine (ISSN 1750-0486) is published by Hurlingham Media. The magazine is designed and produced on behalf of Hurlingham Media by Show Media Ltd. The products and services advertised are not necessarily endorsed by or connected with the publisher. The editorial opinions expressed in this publication are those of individual authors and not necessarily those of the publisher. Hurlingham magazine welcomes feedback from readers: hurlinghammedia@hpa-polo.co.uk. Hurlingham is compliant with GDPR regulations.

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HURLINGHAM

FOREWORD We have had a competitive summer of polo in England. The best two teams in the 22-goal were Thai Polo and UAE. Harald Link has been a patient and long-time supporter of English polo. His team, Thai Polo, won the Prince of Wales Trophy and the Gold Cup. We cover both in the Action section. Carolina Beresford writes about UAE’s HH Sheikha Maitha who won the Queen’s Cup, lost in the final of the Gold Cup and her team triumphed in the Ladies Open. Her teammate, Tomas Panelo, went from 6 to 8 goals and one of the reasons why was his mare Juniper. You can read in Ponylines why she is so special. Have a look at the “Saddle up With”, Louis Hine won the Prince of Wales and the Gold Cup at age 15, and went from 2 to 4 goals this summer but what will make you smile is what he says about his parents, and especially his mother! In Talk, John Tinsley, former chairman of the HPA, pays tribute to David Woodd, who is retiring after 22 years as CEO. David had an interesting military career dealing with a number of crises and you can see why, with that experience, his term at the helm of the HPA was a success. On a personal note, it has been a great pleasure to work with David. He will be missed! In Features, Adam Lindemann recounts bringing Adolfo Cambiaso to play in Palm Beach 30 years ago. And, it is increasingly difficult to organise a World Cup as over 200 ponies are required, yet Asad Jumabhoy has a novel solution. There are more interesting articles and I hope you enjoy the issue! 4

RODERICK VERE NICOLL PUBLISHER

As always, I would like to thank the writers who have contributed to this issue, as well as the advertisers who have supported the edition and made its publication possible.

CONTRIBUTORS

A private investor renowned as

I J A Z C H A U D H R Y is a sports

N E U S R A M O S F E L I U has

Having been involved with polo all

a taste-maker in collecting and

journalist with roots in both Pakistan

over 15 years’ experience working

his life, J U S T O S A N T A M A R I N A

investing in contemporary art, ADAM

and the UK. He has written, reported

as a media manager for motorsport

has had an extensive career in

LINDEMANN founded influential

and spoken on around 30 sporting

events. Always ready for new

journalism, and his dedication and

gallery Venus Over Manhattan and

disciplines for various newspapers,

challenges, she made a career change

enthusiasm for the game of polo

has authored two best-selling books

magazines, websites and TV/Radio

to a new sporting sector, taking over

has taken him all over the world. His

for Taschen on collecting. He is

channels. For more about him and his

as press officer at the Polo Rider Cup

articles have always been centred

currently chairman of Youngtimers.

work, visit sportscorrespondent.info

in Chantilly, north of Paris.

around this amazing sport.

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@USPOLOASSN | USPOLOASSNGLOBAL.COM

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PONYLINES

ONE TO WATCH

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SHEIKHA MAITHA UAE has matured into one of the most reputable polo organisations in the world, claiming titles in England, Argentina and, of course, Dubai – in both the men’s and women’s categories. The driving force behind the organisation is Her Highness Sheikha Maitha bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Her first experience with polo came at age 17, but it was only at 31, in 2011, that she became seriously involved in the sport. A keen competitor and accomplished equestrian, HH Sheikha Maitha has built a powerhouse of an organisation. Guided by Lucas Monteverde, HH Sheikha Maitha has

won some of the most reputable competitions in the world. This year was no different, as her UAE Polo Team took several titles in Dubai before winning both the Queen’s Cup and the British Ladies Open in England. UAE also qualified for the final of the British Open Gold Cup. The 2022 season also looks extremely promising for HH Sheikha Maitha. She will start the year competing in the Dubai Polo Gold Cup Series at Al Habtoor Polo Resort & Club, before landing back in England to defend her Queen’s Cup title at Guards Polo Club. She will be joined by Tommy Beresford (for a second year), and by two

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young Argentine superstars: Lukin Monteverde and Barto Castagnola. HH Sheikha Maitha’s progress over the years is evident. As a player, she reads the game well, always managing to be in the right place at the right time, providing her professionals crucial support, particularly in big finals. A true admirer of equestrian prowess, HH Sheikha Maitha is very involved in the breeding and training of her horses. Her deep knowledge of UAE’s string gives her an edge most amateur players don’t have. She is a role model for women in sports, challenging the limits of polo and taking titles wherever she tacks up.

PONYLINES

CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Many of the year’s landmark events have had restricted attendance and hence the season has rather slipped by – it is hard to believe that we are now in October. Nevertheless, largely thanks to the fact that we managed to play in very difficult circumstances last year, players kept playing and came from overseas and so we had a very competitive and full season, especially in the high-goal where we saw a healthy influx of young players and new team line-ups. Congratulations are due to all the teams, in particular to Thai Polo and UAE, and

thank you to everyone for supporting our season. We also saw the successful introduction of the 22-goal Championship Cup at Guards in August, which Park Place won after a very good final against Monterosso. One of the highlights of the season must be the Gold Cup final because, although it delayed the game and produced a very bedraggled Chris Bethell, the torrential rain had scarcely any effect on the ground, which provided an outstanding fast open game. Notable this season was the increased live streaming and use of VAR, not just in the 22-goal, but in the other levels as well. Combined with the filming of the majority of the Victor Ludorum games, this has helped to improve the accountability of the umpires and the players as well as the handling of any complaints, of which there have been very few. Inevitably, the international games have been difficult. The planned three-match series against Pakistan and international against

France for the Coronation Cup could not take place due to travel restrictions, but Ireland provided an excellent opposition at Beaufort as did Argentina for the women at Cirencester. Sadly, England was unable to field a team when the 8-goal European Championship was moved from Azerbaijan to Sotogrande but an England women’s team did travel to Milan to take part in the women’s European Championship where they lost in the final by half a goal! John Tinsley has written a very kind article in this edition. He has clearly turned a blind eye to my shooting on many days when things have not gone so well. I am not gone yet but this does give me the opportunity to thank all those stewards, committee members and polo managers who have supported and helped me over many years. A few were there when I started and are still there and I, and everyone else, are unbelievably lucky that so many give so much so freely.

H O R AC E A L B E RT L A F FAY E Horace Albert Laffaye (left), 86, sadly passed away of natural causes due to complications of late-stage Alzheimer’s disease on 31 May, 2021 in Durango, Colorado. Dr Laffaye served as chief of surgery at Norwalk Hospital for 22 years, until his retirement in 2005. It was here he encountered a patient who sought treatment for an injury sustained while playing polo, re-igniting his passion for the sport, which he played in his native Argentina. For two decades, Dr Laffaye played at the Fairfield County Hunt Club in Westport, the Ox Ridge Hunt Club in Darien and at the White Birch Polo Club in Greenwich. After his playing days ended, he combined his love of history and polo by reinventing himself as a scholar and author, sharing innumerable engaging stories of players and horses from the earliest days of polo to recent times. Upon his retirement to Wellington, Florida, he assisted the Polo Museum and Hall of Fame in myriad ways, from helping the organisation add to their collections of books, art and memorabilia, to serving on the Board of Directors and as chair of the Nominating Committee.

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PONYLINES

HOOKED ON POLO JAMES BEH Having started polo 30 years ago with no riding experience, James Beh now plays medium and high-goal polo around the world

REMEMBERING MERCURY

I M A G E S O F P O LO ; G I S È L E L A F FAY E PA N S Z E ; R E B E C A R I O F R I O

Mercury was born in April 2005 at the Dyfed Shire Horse Farm in West Wales and met

I began polo with my daughter, Lovy, and my eldest son, Chevy, in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia at Iskandar Polo Club, named after the late Sultan of Perak, located 200km north of the capital Kuala Lumpur. It was an active polo club until after the global tin price collapsed and lots of expats and business people disappeared, and the club asked me to support it and take up polo. I then started buying horses from Royal Pahang Polo Club, New Zealand and Australia, and things progressed from there. Polo is special for me as I play it with my family in my own private BP Polo Club at home. Polo promotes a lot of family bonding time and it also keeps us fit, healthy and active, demanding a lot of physical and mental preparation. It also provides very valuable practical training to my children on business skills and develops confidence, as high-goal polo is a very complex sport. My perfect game is playing with my four children. Everyone is committed and fighting for the game, whether we’re winning or losing. When we lose, we learn more. My three sons are 4-goal players, so we can play medium goal as a family and low goal with my daughter. Playing Snow Polo in St Moritz in 2017 was particularly memorable as we played as a 15-goal family team and created history as the first family ever to participate without any professional. I just played the 30-goal San Jorge Open in Argentina with Adolfo Cambiaso and based at La Dolfina.

with The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in October 2008, when he began his training to become one of its iconic drum horses. After his initial training in The Defence Animal Centre in Melton Mowbray, he was then posted to Hyde Park Barracks, where he passed out of training in 2010 and began his incredible life serving in The Band of The Household Cavalry. Mercury went on to amaze audiences on a global scale during his 11-year service to the nation – from taking part in ceremonial events, from Trooping the Colour and state escorts of world leaders, to most recently parading at the Queen’s Cup final at Guards Polo Club, and so much more. At 17.2 hands high and weighing 821kg, he was one of the largest horses in service with The British Army, with a gentle giant’s personality to match, and his presence would always astonish onlookers.

A CLOSE SECOND

without the sponsors, 1875,

England lost to Italy 6 ½ to 6 in

Frasers, Stat Sports, CNBC,

the third FIP Ladies’ European

Moorgate Capital, Emma Willis,

Championship at La Mimosa Polo

Style for Soldiers and The Borders

Club, near Milan on September 22.

Distillery. The Ladies secured

England’s Heloise Wilson-Smith

a place for the FIP World Cup

won MVP of the tournament

in Argentina in April 2022. The

and Fran Townsend won The

team was (above) Fran Townsend,

Sportsmanship award. The team

Millie Hughes, Heloise Wilson-

could not have made it so far

Smith and Emma Wood.

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PONYLINES

CHUKKAS The San Jorge Open (30 goals) was played at Palermo in September. 9-goaler “Barto” Castagnola was top scorer with 13 goals (8 in the final), followed by Malaysian Joevy Beh with 11 goals (5 in the final) and 65-year-old James Beh with 10 goals. It should be noted that James played one game fewer than Barto and Joey!

3-goal player, Moritz Gädeke is the organiser and host of the 12-goal German Championship. The tournament is played in Berlin at Maifeld, where the 1936 Olympics was played. 2022 will be the 50th anniversary of the German Polo Federation.

SADDLE UP WITH… LOUIS HINE COUNTRY: UK HANDICAP: 4 AGE: 15

The Santa Barbara Polo Club has decided to raise the level of polo in the summer (July and August) for the 2022 season from 16 to 18 goals. They are expecting 8 teams, up from 6 in 2021. The featured tournaments are the Robert Skene, the USPA Silver Cup and the Pacific Coast Open.

The East Coast Open was played at the Greenwich Polo Club in September. Via the club’s social media programmes, between 4,200 and 4,600 spectators attended on each Sunday. This is a bigger crowd than many clubs achieve on any final!

The Townsend Cup (arena) was first played for in 1923 between the USA and England. The 9th edition was played on 9 October in Aiken, South Carolina. (The series stands at USA 7 – England 1.)

The XIII European Championships (6-8 goals) organised by FIP was played in Sotogrande. Six teams participated. Italy beat Austria in the final and Spain beat the Netherlands for third place.

HPM: When and how did you start to play polo? LH: I started playing from a very young age with my family, as my dad played polo his whole life too. HPM: What makes polo special for you? LH: I love the connection you form with your horses, as they aren’t like machines – they have their own minds and feelings. I think it’s a very special thing to play a sport relying on an animal, as it shows how much trust you put in them. HPM: Who do you respect most in polo? LH: Obviously, I have always respected and looked up to my father from a very young age, as he has taught me most things I know. He has been to every one of my games, so has always been there to help me and tell me important things. I also massively

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respect my mum, as she does a huge amount behind the scenes, and is also always there for me. HPM: What level of polo do you play? LH: This year was my first season playing high goal, and I also played some medium and a bit of low goal. HPM: What is your most memorable polo game? LH: Definitely the Gold Cup final. This was, by far, the biggest moment of my career to date and I will never forget it! It was incredible playing with Nico Pieres and James Harper, and I’ve always loved playing with my brother. HPM: What are your plans for the winter? LH: I went back to school in September and will hopefully go out to Argentina during late October for the season, then back to England to study.

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PONYLINES

NEIL HIRSCH A generous and passionate polo player and advocate for children, Neil S. Hirsch passed away on Thursday, 24 June, at the age of 73 after courageously battling an illness for two years.

LOVE OF MY LIFE BY TOMÁS PANELO

Neil revolutionised the trading of government, fixed income and foreign exchange securities by creating technology to collect and disseminate information not otherwise available to traders at the time. Starting Telerate when he was 21 years

P O N Y ’ S N A M E : A L B E R TA J U N I P E R SEX: MARE ORIGIN: ARGENTINA

old, he expanded the business into over 80 countries. Neil co-owned Black Watch polo team.

I got Juniper from a farm in Lobos, my hometown in

He founded the Neil S. Hirsch Family Boys & Girls

Argentina. I saw her one day in a paddock and I really liked

Club in 2012. Donating $1.5 million dollars to

the look of her – she was long and looked powerful and very

fund the project, Neil worked tirelessly to provide

pretty. I said to the owner, Diego Vistalli, that I wanted to try

loving support to his “kids”, helping to provide

her. I played her in the first practice – she was heavy but she

thousands with after-school programmes.

was passing other mares and stopping. I really liked her action; really fast and not moving from the ground, so I thought if she could run like that unfit, hopefully by getting her fit and in good shape, she could do really well. I asked the owner to leave her with me for a few days, and since that moment, I haven’t wanted to get off her. I played her for two chukkas in every game in the Cámara de Diputados in Argentina last year. After that I flew her to Dubai to play in a few games of the Gold Cup there. Then I flew her to England, and this 2021 season it was amazing

IMAGESOFPOLO.COM; @DAVID LOMINSKA

what she did. The quality of horses in the UK season is really high and it’s really competitive. Everyone has good strings

THE POLO GRAND SLAM When Nicolas Pieres won the British Gold Cup

of horses, so it’s difficult to have a mare that stands out. Also, for a player of my handicap (6 goals going to 7) and

this year, he completed what Cucho Garrahan

starting my career aged 21, it’s really difficult to find mares

thinks is the Grand Slam of polo, with the

like that or have the chance to buy them. I think I was very

following tournaments: the Tortugas, Hurlingham

lucky I found her! She always gives one more run, and when

and Palermo Opens, the American Gold Cup and

the other horses are tired, this one keeps pushing and

US Open, and the Queen’s and Gold Cups. Only

running. I played her three times in every game of the Gold

11 players have won all of these: Gonzalo Pieres,

Cup. Every last chukka of the game I want to be on her. And

Carlos Gracida, Bautista Heguy, Juan Ignacio

she rises to important moments – I scored the winning goal

Merlos, Sebastian Merlos, Adolfo Cambiaso,

in the 7th chukka in two of the league games.

Juan Martin Nero, David Stirling, Facundo Pieres, Gonzalo Pieres (h.) and Nicolas Pieres.

She is one of those mares that won’t leave you in any play; even if she is tired, she will push harder and harder.

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1111

TA L K

A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW It will be well known by many that David is retiring as chief executive of the Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) at the end of this season. It was 23 years ago that a small group from the HPA interviewed David at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. The group consisted of Mark Vestey, Jim Haigh, Buff Crisp and myself. It is perhaps worth noting that we were unanimous that David was the man to take us into the next century and to oversee the changes in polo that were perhaps overdue. It is also probable that many players are well aware of some of the polo activities in the past 22 years, but many will not know of David’s “other life” outside polo, so I make no apologies for giving a small summary of his army and outside career. David commanded his regiment, the 14th/20th King’s Hussars for its last six months and the King’s Royal Hussars for its first 18 months following amalgamation and was promoted to full Colonel on completion of the command. When we met at the Staff College, he still had five years to serve in the army and was waiting to be promoted to Brigadier, having turned down the post of Commander of British Forces in the Falkland Islands. But this was a very long way from Oxfordshire. He had already had some interesting jobs in the army, including operational logistics for all the UK’s overseas bases such as Hong Kong, Cyprus and Belize and this included close involvement with the clean-up in the Falkland Islands. During the first Gulf War he was part of the four-man team which sat in the daily meeting of the Chiefs of Staff at the MOD and produced the detailed minutes of those meetings. Among his subsequent tasks, he worked with John Wright (later to be chairman of the

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DAVID WOODD

John Tinsley commemorates David Woodd’s successful 22-year tenure as chief executive of the HPA

TA L K

Opposite: The Queen presenting to David in 1987. Opposite: David (#4) followed by daughters Matilda (#2) and Tabitha (#1) with Dave Miller (#3) in 2008

THE HPA STE WARDS, W I T H D AV I D AT T HE HELM, H AV E N AV I G AT E D T H E HIGH-GOAL THROUGH THE PANDEMIC

HPA) and was responsible for operations in Bosnia and planning urgent equipment requirements. While on regimental duty he served in Hong Kong and Germany, with three tours in Northern Ireland. He also completed a tour with the British Military Advisory Team in Zimbabwe where he played polo most weekends prior to attending the Army Staff College in 1984. It will be no surprise that we thought with a CV of this nature, running the HPA could only feel like a gentle trot-out on a Sunday morning. Perhaps polo has not been quite as simple as we all assumed over the past 20 or so years, but David’s army career

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had qualified him well to deal with the crises that seemed to arrive annually. In 2001, Britain was hit by the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, which saw the cancellation of the Cheltenham Festival, the slaughter of six million cows and sheep, and the postponement of a general election. Not the least of this disaster was the closure of Guards Polo Club for the entire season. David masterminded the International Day being moved to Cowdray Park. Many at the time considered this to be the most enjoyable International Day, however, it returned to Guards and increased in popularity for several years to come. And then, of course, these recent two years have been blighted with Covid-19 problems, on a different level to the foot and mouth problems. But the HPA stewards, with David at the helm, have navigated the high-goal through the pandemic with as little interruption as possible. Early in his tenure there was also the crisis of the “Bosman” ruling. Previously, the HPA had been able to rule on the nationality of players in any team playing in England. The removal of this right caused enormous ructions in the polo community; there was little that could be done at the time, but that did not convince the sceptics that it had to be accepted as part of the law. It is perhaps ironic after all the time and money spent on the project that we have now left the EU and can decide on our own laws. Cartier was a consistent sponsor of polo for many years and David along with Charlie Stisted from Guards Polo Club were an enormous influence for good during this very happy relationship. This period also saw the formation of a very harmonious infrastructure of Audi UK as a major car sponsor. This was of huge benefit to many

TA L K

Above: David at the Audi International. Below, left: David with Lucas Monteverde and Charles Beresford. Below, right: In 2009 at the Westchester Cup, Palm Beach. From left: John Tinsley, Nicholas ColquhounDenvers, David Woodd, The Hon. Mark Vestey and John Tylor

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IMAGESOFPOLO.COM; DAVID WOODD

polo players and particularly for Audi UK, for the publicity it gave their iconic cars. One of David’s great achievements occured when we were due to play Mexico; we were uncertain we had a team from them until 11 o’clock on the Sunday morning. Perhaps his army career had helped with the tact and diplomacy to solve the problem? The Internationals in these times were enormously successful, fun occasions and were a highlight of the annual polo season. During David’s time, the Westchester Cup (against the USA) was played on four occasions. For myself, and I am sure for David, we will not forget the occasion in the US at the International Polo Club Palm Beach when we defeated the USA at home for the first time since 1914. (Interestingly, David and I have the same picture on our desk at home; the photograph from that occasion with Mark Vestey, John Tylor, Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers and myself on the ground at Palm Beach.) During these years we saw the expansion and growth of FIP and the increasing involvement of the HPA. There was a period

TA L K

IT WAS AN E ASY DECISION FOR THE FOUR OF US TO M A K E T H AT D AY 2 3 YEARS AGO, AND W H AT A S U C C E S S DAV ID H A S BEEN IN HIS POST

Above: Army tour to the US, 1982. From left: Iain Forbes-Cockell, Jonathan Cameron-Hayes, Jack Stead, President George H.W Bush, DW and Tony Ballard

when it appeared that there would be an increasing variation to the rules worldwide (which clearly would not be sensible) and the International Rules Committee, largely led by David, has been successful in integrating the rules on a worldwide scale. All this, together with the running of The John Cowdray Polo Charity; a new relationship with China; the formation of Snow Polo; the start of Junior HPA; numerous FIP tournaments and internationals here and at Palermo; all done with a complete inability to master Spanish as a language. At the same time, he has managed to enjoy the running of a polo team with his daughters and being Master of the Salters’ Company, one of the great 12 livery companies in the City of London. After this pretty hectic life, it is easy to forget that David was an amateur 4-goal player and a life member of Guards. Polo followers in England will know how rare it is to find a true amateur 4-goal player, so this,

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together with his having been a steward of the HPA under the chairmanship of Peter Thwaites put him in a unique position to oversee English polo. Finally, I cannot pass by David’s accomplishments without mentioning his prowess on the sporting shooting field. I have seen him on many occasions performing to the very highest levels; particularly at fast high curling partridges. It is so satisfying when it is going well, and rather irritating when it is not. In addition, he organises a travelling shooting syndicate, which certainly needs all the skills that have not been exhausted on the “day job”. It was an easy decision for the four of us to make that day 23 years ago, and what a success David has been in his post of chief executive, where he will have worked with seven different chairmen. I would like to speak on behalf of all the polo community to say, ‘Thank you, David for a great job well done’.

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Last month, the rapidly expanding company unveiled Caidr 3.0, the latest version of its health and wellness search engine app for smart self-care. With personalised content written by Clinova’s medical team of GPs and pharmacists, and an in-app product shop, the Caidr app is poised to welcome recent waves of new engagement in the mobile health technology market. ‘Caidr 3.0 realises our long-term vision of bringing the full power of its health and wellness data platform to your mobile device. With a search bar at the centre of a redesigned user interface, Caidr Search is both easy to find and simple to use. You simply type in a

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health topic you would like to learn about, and Caidr takes care of the rest,’ says Karim. ‘Sectors across the economy have seen explosive growth in technology and digitisation since the start of the pandemic. Across economic sectors, health technology in particular leads the charge. We’re proud to be a part of that,’ adds Ebubedike. With sales of O.R.S Hydration tablets and Covaflu at all-time highs, key partnerships with Tottenham Hotspur FC, La Dolfina Polo Team and Emirates, and a presence in more than 20 of the world’s largest consumer health and technology markets, Clinova is poised to enter a strong new phase of growth.

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FRIENDS FOREVER Carolina Beresford explains how the Friend’s Polo venture enriches family time and builds a supportive community around a shared love of horses

THE CLUBHOUSE CAMARADERIE MANY P L AY E R S P I N E F O R CAN BE REVIVED were the sporting and social event of the weekends. Friend’s Polo proved once again that the clubhouse camaraderie many players pine for can be revived – without sacrificing playing level. Professionals such as Donoso, Malcolm Borwick, Jack Richardson, Matt Perry, Lance and Callum Anderson, and Matt Evetts competed alongside Nick Clarke, Roderick Vere Nicoll, Serena Taylor, Ashok and Ravi Bhatia, Louisa Watt, Jo Stuart and Rico Richert, among others. Awards were

Left: The Serefina and Weyborne teams. Right: The trophy table

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presented after each fixture, with competitors taking home prizes provided by Smythson and Weybourne Wines. Friend’s Polo continues its international circuit in Argentina, with specialised polo weeks and tournaments, including their defining event, where two parent-child duos couple up to win the ultimate Friend’s Polo title. The polo school, for riders of all ages, will also be active throughout the Argentine spring season. Donoso’s stance on the game of polo is as alluring as it is admirable, with Friend’s Polo providing a version of the sport that enriches the family as a whole and builds a supportive community around a shared love of horses – a true gem of a venture. @friendspolo

@ F R I E N D S P O L O I N S TA G R A M

Friend’s Polo landed on British soil for a second consecutive year, this time hosting a month of challenges where patrons and professionals came together to enjoy competitive, open polo. Chilean José Donoso, a former 8-goal player who has racked up many titles over his career, founded Friend’s Polo back in 2017. On noticing how opportunities to enjoy polo with friends and family were dwindling, Donoso decided to create a space where parents could play alongside their children, and friends could compete among each other – a style of playing where the score is secondary and quality time spent among horses and loved ones is paramount. This year’s action took place at Great Trippetts Farm in West Sussex. Warm weather and impeccable fields meant the challenges

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MAX FACTOR British international Max Charlton tells Ijaz Chaudhry why Pakistan’s polo circuit is so close to his heart

Until a few years ago, terrorism-hit Pakistan was considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world to visit. Thanks to the successful interventions of the armed forces, aided by civilians, peace has been restored in almost all parts of the country – albeit at a high price in terms of human lives.

Compelling evidence of a peaceful Pakistan is the large number of sportspeople who have returned, including international cricket and kabaddi teams (for the delayed 2020 World Cup), along with the world’s top players for Professional Squash Association events and International Tennis Federation tournaments, among others.

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However, one sport attracted foreign stars throughout those terrible years, despite the apparent danger. Every single season for the past 20 years has seen the involvement of foreign polo players. The 2020/21 season saw 20 foreign players (mostly from Argentina), in action on the grounds of Lahore Polo Club and Jinnah Polo Club.

IMAGESOFPOLO.COM

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Opposite page: Hissam Hyder followed by Max in the Coronation Cup, 2016. Below: Max Charlton receiving the Top Scorer trophy from Pakistan’s President, Arif Alvi

T HE GR O UND S, PAV ILION A N D S TA B L E S A R E ALL EXCELLENT

One of the most popular players on Lahore’s polo circuit was Max Charlton. Rated among the top three British players in field polo, he is the number one indoor polo player – the only one in the world with the maximum handicap of 10. Still just 30, he has been a full-time polo pro for the last 14 years. Max started playing as a full-time pro at the age of 16, and the game has taken him to all corners of the globe. In addition to the UK, he has played in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Argentina, Mexico, USA, New Zealand, Australia, India, China, the Philippines – and of course Pakistan. He usually spends around four months a year playing outside the UK, though this has been limited by the impact of the pandemic over the past year. He was only 18 when he was called up to play for Young England vs New Zealand in 2008. The following year he made the full national team. Since then, he has represented England in international tournaments every year, including arena and snow polo, and he captained the England team at the 2014 Snow Polo World Cup in China. 2020-21 was his second season playing in Pakistan. ‘I came here for the first time in February 2016. It was a very enjoyable trip but I could only return after four years due to other international commitments and tournaments,’ he explains. ‘I am pleased to have the chance to come back again. Yes, some people did express apprehension [that] I was going to Pakistan in 2016, though no one in my immediate family. My parents had lived in the Middle East and parts of Asia, and often fondly talked about their time there. Now, the

world knows that Pakistan has overcome the menace of terrorism.’ ‘The grounds, pavilion, and stables are all excellent,’ he continues. ‘The standard is quite high with some very good players, and most of the matches are very competitive. I am delighted to see it expanding. In 2016, there was only Lahore Polo Club. Now, another excellent facility, Jinnah Polo Club, with three fantastic grounds, has sprung up. Hence, there are more tournaments. The number of teams has also increased; Master Paints fielded two sides this year. As many as 20 foreign players were plying their trade. Local players have imported ponies. Foreign umpires are also whistling.’ Pakistan’s top-ranked player, Hissam Hyder is not only a close friend of Max’s, but also his favourite to watch. ‘When I

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first joined the Guards Polo Club, he was playing for them,’ he recalls. ‘I call him my first mentor. We remained teammates for many years. In Lahore, too, we were together in the DS Polo team. But although we’re friends, both of us are extremely competitive when we come across each other on the pitch. The most memorable occasion was an international tie. I was playing for England while Hissam appeared for a Commonwealth team. ‘Lahore is a wonderful city with so much to see,’ he continues. ‘Historic places, parks, museums. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to get to any other city. On both of my previous visits, I came unaccompanied, but I hope to bring my girlfriend Sophie with me next time, so that we can both explore this fascinating country.’

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REINVENTING THE WHEEL Could eWheels help revolutionise the future of polo? Javier Tanoira is electrified by the possibilities

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I M A G E S O F P O L O . C O M ; M A R I A M A R TA A L F O N S O

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In October 2019, I came up with the idea of inventing a sport similar to polo, where the horse is replaced by a mechanical equivalent. I spent several months reflecting on whether it was a good idea. When I realised that it would have a positive impact on polo, I rounded up a group of friends and investors prepared to back my vision. Today we are in the process of developing a prototype in Cordoba, Argentina, in the hope that we’ll build a vehicle worthy of its role. At the same time, several friends who were up to speed on our new project began sending me videos of kids stick-and-balling on eWheels on the fields of Palm Beach, England, and Deauville. I also started noticing this trend in several clubs in Argentina. It looked like a lot of fun, but at the time I failed to see its potential, or how it related to what we were doing. It was only in March 2021, at a practice in Cuatro Vientos, our family farm in Pilar, when several of my nephews and their friends were whizzing around on eWheels, that I realised just how entertaining it was to watch. I also realised how similar it could be to polo, simply by applying rules and transforming it into a team game. It seemed to me that this could be a great way into the new sport that we are developing. I learnt to ride eWheels (luckily, they are not hard to get the hang of) and concluded they are definitely not just a gadget for kids. Not only is it fun, but it’s challenging and exciting, too. The forward or backward inclination of your body is the only way to manage the speed, so controlling your movement becomes totally intuitive and very precise. I believe that eWheels like these will eventually revolutionise sports such as skiing, lacrosse and field hockey. It was interesting to note that many of the young kids who have eWheels are the children of high-goal players and other polo professionals. These players understand better than anyone how playing on them can benefit their children’s polo performance. So eWheels are already having a positive impact on polo – whether we end up creating a new sport or not. The time is right to formalise this hobby and make this more than just something

ELECTRIC POLO WILL BE AN EXCELLENT COMPLEMENT TO TRADITIONAL POLO

kids do on the field when their parents finish playing. We need to spread the idea of ‘electric polo’ around all the clubs – or anywhere there is a polo field, for that matter (note: the wheels do not damage the grass), so that polo lovers who (for whatever reason) cannot play polo can get involved. I envisage the rules to be very similar to traditional polo. A few changes will be made regarding the dynamics of play and mechanical factors, of course. If one is closer to the ground, the mallet needs to be shorter. If the mallet is shorter, the ball will not travel as far, meaning that the playing field will be smaller and the ball a bit bigger (and made of softer material). Also, the fact that a player will not be holding reins in their left hand invites us to consider letting players switch the mallet from hand to hand, making it an ambidextrous sport: finally, the lefties of the world can feel comfortable! The possibilities are endless. Before us opens a new chapter in sport. That is what motivates me most. During the forthcoming spring season in Argentina, we will invite the best polo players to come together and validate the

rules, to see what works and what doesn’t, and then start offering the new sport to anyone who wants to play, with specified ground measurements, equipment, ball size, playing time and safety measures (it will be safer to play than polo, but played competitively, will still have its risks). We would love to invite the polo community to come and play this new game: associations, clubs, patrons, professionals, amateurs, mallet makers, saddleries, journalists and everyone who is related to polo in some way. Electric polo will be an excellent complement to traditional polo – as long as we take the reins and lay the foundations. I sometimes get asked whether the machine will eventually replace the horse. Apart from being perhaps an irrelevant question, if that day does eventually come, it is unlikely that either I, or anyone reading these words, will be around to see it. Worrying about encouraging the use of eWheels seems to me a waste of energy. All I can say is this: just learn to ride one and enjoy the view. The journey is always more exciting than the destination.

Opposite: Louis Hine in 2019. In 2021 he won the Gold Cup. Left: Javier Tanoira gives instruction in Santa Barbara this past summer

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PEAK PERFORMANCE Justo Santamarina describes how Kheiron Biotech and Doña Sofía are at the forefront of horse cloning technology

KHEIRON

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Opposite: Clones (fillies) of Cuartetera, Alazanas, Birra, Ethel and Polo Pureza. This page, from left: Clone of Silvina Luna is the first clone born in South America; the Chestnut is a filly of a clone of Sage with Open Espacial.

Adapting to new times and technologies is always important and that is what Kheiron Biotech does. Horse cloning is a very powerful technological tool in horse reproduction that allows the generation of twins or replicas of excellent specimens. In recent years, the use of this technology has grown significantly, resulting in great developments in polo, where the presence of cloned horses and their offspring is becoming more and more common. Founded by Daniel Sammartino, Kheiron Biotech has developed the most advanced cloning technology; this allows for precise gene editing by making minor adjustments to the genome of the animals in a safe way, and it has achieved the highest annual production of 100 clones in one year, with 100% efficiency in births. The first polo horse cloned in South America was developed by Kheiron Biotech in 2013. Since then, the Argentine laboratory has not stopped growing, and by 2021 it had already generated more than 250 equine clones. Today, as a result of technological advances and the proven sporting success it brings, there is a very significant delivery of

clones per year. Currently, they can produce between 50 to 100 clones annually, which has allowed the market to grow further. The progress of this technology has generated a rapid growth of equine cloning in many regions of the world, including Europe. The United Kingdom, in particular, is one of the countries in which the horse cloning market has developed most prominently, as the leading English polo organisations have recently started to clone animals together with Kheiron. Doña Sofía, a sister company of Kheiron, uses cloning and embryo transfer techniques in its own laboratories located in San Antonio de Areco, a province of Buenos Aires. Doña Sofía has formed partnerships with the most prestigious breeders and polo players, which has allowed them to clone and share their most important horses. This has allowed Doña Sofia to own many of the Hall of Fame horses from Argentina and the US, including Dolfina Toro, Polo Pureza, Alazanas Birra, Fantasía, Levicu and Sage, among others.

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THE PROGRESS OF THIS TECHNOLOGY H A S G E N E R AT E D A RAPID GROWTH OF EQUINE CLONING IN MANY REGIONS In early 2018, Doña Sofía agreed to a partnership with La Dolfina, recognised as the best team in the world and owned by Argentine Adolfo Cambiaso, who is considered the best polo player in history. This partnership granted La Dolfina the ability to make sporting use of the more than 100 clones and competition mares owned by Doña Sofía. Since 2015, Doña Sofía has successfully held auctions to sell its horses to potential buyers. This year the auction will be held fully online, and for the first time, daughters of the clones will be auctioned off. The sales will take place through auctioneer Antonio Bullrich (antoniobullrich.com).

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CLUB CLASSIC ©PRC21/GAMEPOLO

Neus Ramos Feliu describes how the inaugural edition of the Polo Rider Cup showcased outstanding performances with intense competition – and why it’s already established itself in the heart of the polo club fraternity

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Held at the Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly, north of Paris, from 10-20 June, the inaugural Polo Rider Cup brought together European clubs, and welcomed teams from Asia and America. A total of 12 teams from eight countries participated in this unique international event. Game Polo, the organiser and promoter, was determined to create a refreshing new tournament concept, as Olivier Godallier, its president and co-founder, explained. ‘People like to identify with a club or city, which creates a more attractive concept and product to watch or to follow. We’re reinstating the club at the heart of polo – something that was missing until now.’ The Polo Rider Cup was played by teams with a total handicap of 10 to 12 goals, and allowed a maximum of two clubs or teams per country. The participating clubs were: Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly; Deauville International Polo Club; Hong Kong Polo Association; Las Brisas Polo Club; Empire Polo Club; Hamburger Polo Club; Polo Club Düsseldorf; Evviva Polo St Moritz; Polo Park Zürich; Moscow Polo Club; Dos Lunas Polo Club and La Aguada Polo Club. Extensive international television coverage brought viewers closer to the action, with digital television channels, live-streaming across different platforms, with daily news and highlights packages. Deauville International Polo Club met Polo Park Zürich in the final. The first two chukkers were evenly fought, with a one-goal lead for the Swiss team at the end of the second chukka, but Polo Park Zürich dominated the game thereafter, beating their rivals 10-4. At the end of the match, Elena Venot of Polo Park Zürich was named MVP of the tournament. Her teammate, Min Podestá, was top scorer with 29 goals – and his horse Pirómana won the BPP title. Min Podestá was exuberant after winning the tournament and enjoying such personal success. ‘I am very happy to win the trophy, and even more to have achieved it with Polo Park Zürich, which is like my second home. To win the first edition of the Polo Rider Cup with 12 tough teams and

AT T H E E N D O F T H E M AT C H , E L E N A VENOT OF P OLO PARK ZURICH WAS NAMED MVP OF THE TOURNAMENT

the way we did it, really playing as a team and winning all the games, is incredible. We didn’t expect to play so well against such a strong team as Deauville International Polo Club. The tournament organisation was great, plus it was the first time that I’ve played at Chantilly – the ground and facilities are amazing.’ Building on the success of the tournament and the positive feedback from the clubs and teams, players, federations, partners and media, Game Polo is already working on next year’s staging, which will return to Chantilly from 8-18 June 2022. After a debriefing with the Federation of International Polo (FIP), the French Polo Federation, the Polo Club du Domaine de

Chantilly plus the founding clubs and teams, it was decided that a subsidiary cup competition would be introduced for the 2022 tournament. ‘At the end of the tournament, all the clubs and teams said they greatly enjoyed taking part in the Polo Rider Cup and expressed their intention to come back next year,’ said Olivier Godallier. ‘In the future, maybe 16 teams can take part but at the moment, we are sure that next year we will return to Chantilly. However, to enable even more teams to participate in future editions, we will explore all opportunities for the Polo Rider Cup to be hosted by another club in a different country.’ Opposite: Min Podesta on the ball in the final. Left: Patrick Eisenchteter with his son, Ulysse

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GOING FOR GOLD With the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games having drawn to a triumphant close, Brenda Lynn and Brandon Fabel of the Museum of Polo in Florida reflect on the sport’s place in Olympic history

Polo is no longer played at the Olympics, but it has been in the past. The last time was 85 years ago, in August 1936 in Berlin. The tournament used an ad hoc format, designed to ensure the two strongest teams, Argentina and Great Britain, made the final. Argentina took the gold medal 15-5 while Mexico defeated Hungary for the bronze medal by 16-2, and the hosts, Germany, ended in fifth place overall. Germany and Hungary both made their polo debuts in 1936, with Great Britain making its fifth appearance, the only nation to compete in all five stagings of the Olympic polo tournament. The history of polo in the Olympics is quite unusual. Played by men only, it was included in 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924 and 1936; there was

no polo at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. After play resumed in 1936 in Berlin, it fell out of favour permanently, most likely due to the logistical and financial challenges of transporting, stabling and feeding large numbers of horses. In its introductory Olympic year in 1900, most teams contained multiple nationalities, and both finalist teams consisted of players from Great Britain and America. British and French men competed on three different teams, and the only medal not won by teams of mixed nationalities was bronze, which went to Mexico. The great 10-goal Hall of Famer, Foxhall Keene (inducted into the Museum of Polo Hall of Fame in 1992) and four-goaler Frank Jay Mackey, were the two American players who

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played alongside two Brits as the Foxhunters to win the gold. Another American, Walter McCreery, helped the BLO Polo Club Rugby take the silver medal. In 1908 and 1924 a round-robin system was used. In 1908, this was because the only three teams entered were all British, resulting in them receiving three medals, a gold and two silvers. In 1920 the American team was assembled by the Army of the Occupation of the Rhine, due to the games being held that year in Antwerp. Germany beat Belgium 11-3 to earn the bronze medal. In 1924 in Paris, Argentina and America were considered the two strongest polo nations in the world, but they had never previously faced each other. Both teams took the two top spots in the round robin, but it was Argentina who won gold in their Olympic polo debut, with four wins to America’s three. America’s legendary team captain, Tommy Hitchcock Jr, was originally appointed to the role in 1924. In his first outing as captain, he played some of the best polo of his life before being injured in the final game. Argentine player Juan Miles reputedly told Hitchcock, ‘You should be ranked 15 instead of ten, Tommy!’ Hitchcock Jr went on to be known as the greatest player of the game’s golden age. An anecdote survives from the Paris Olympics of 1924. Apparently, the Argentine captain, Juan ‘Jack’ Nelson, visited the cathedral of Notre Dame to light a candle and pray for victory. Glancing across the aisle he saw Tommy Hitchcock doing the same… Chairman of the Hurlingham Club in Argentina, Pepe Santamarina, also shares a great historical story about Olympic polo in 1924. ‘Luis Lacey was 10 goals and the superstar of the moment. He was born in

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Opposite: Tommy Hitchcock, 10 goaler, captain of the silver medal-winning American Olympic team in 1924. This page: The Mexican team at the opening ceremony of the 1936 games

IN T HE 19 0 8 G A ME S O N LY T H R E E T E A M S T O O K PA R T. T H E Y WERE ALL BRITISH Canada and his parents were English, but he came to Hurlingham when he was four years old and played for Argentina in 1922. He was invited to play for both Argentina and the UK. In the end, he said, ‘I have friends in the two countries, I will not play.’ Many hope polo will one day return to the Olympics. Whether that dream ever comes to fruition, it’s clear that the sport already has a rich history in the tournament.

M U S E U M O F P O L O A R C H I V E ; P E P E S A N TA M A R I N A

F I P C E O A L E X TAY LO R S H A R E S A N U P D AT E O N P L A N S TO R E - E STA B L I S H P O L O A S A N O LY M P I C S P O R T The Federation of International Polo was recognised as an International Federation of the International Olympic Committee in July 1996 by the IOC General Assembly. After this decision, that same year FIP joined as a member of ARISF (Association of IOC Recognised International Sport Federations). In 1998, the Executive Committee of the IOC confirmed the FIP as the only Federation recognised to represent the sport of polo at the Olympic Games.

One of the goals of FIP is to re-establish polo as an Olympic sport. Official recognition by the IOC means that FIP and the IOC will work together to prepare the Federation and its members for participation in future Olympic games. The participation of polo as a demonstrative sport during the 2018 Buenos Aires Summer Youth Olympic Games was a very important step in this regard. This was achieved by the joint work of FIP with the Argentine Polo

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Association and the authorities of the city of Buenos Aires. FIP is committed to the Federazione Italiana Sport Equestri (FISE) and the Italian Olympic Committee to ensure that polo participates in the Olympic Winter Games in Cortina, 2026. The Federation of International Polo has appointed Simone Perillo and Alessandro Giachetti to form part of FIP’s Olympic Snow Polo Committee together with Dr Piero Dillier and myself. The objective of this Committee is to work towards the participation of Snow Polo in the Winter Olympic Games for 2026.

OPINION

The sky's the limit AAP president, Delfin Uranga outlines his bold, inspiring vision for the long-term growth of Argentine polo, and how the country can share its knowledge with the world I L L U S T R AT I O N : P E T E R J A M E S F I E L D

PETER JAMES FIELD/AGENCYRUSH.COM; BUITRE TV

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W E N E E D T O W O R K T I R E L E S S LY E V E R Y D AY T O G E T M O R E PA R T N E R S , AT T R A C T M O R E FA N S A N D D E V E L O P M O R E P L AY E R S , I N S A F E R C O N D I T I O N S

As an Argentinean, polo has always been an important part of me. Indeed, it has made me who I am today – the family I have created, the friends I’ve made and the values I teach every day to my children. This beautiful sport is more than a sport to me. It has taught me that hard work, respect and perseverance underpin success in every project. And, four years since we first arrived at the AAP with the amazing team we’ve formed with Eduardo, I strongly believe that the sky is the limit for our dreams for the Association. For me, the AAP is like my second home. My grandfather, Carlos played the first game and scored the first goal on the iconic Field Number 2 at Palermo, and my father Marcos was president between 1983 and 1987. But even though I was made president of the AACCP in 2012, I achieved a lifetime dream when I became AAP president last May. Our vision for polo is bold and engaging. We believe that the industry polo represents in Argentina needs to be deployed all around the world, leveraging all the knowledge and expertise our ecosystem has created. We aim to position Argentine polo as an iconic example of sporting excellence, a skilled workforce and exemplary content development and experience creation around the sport. We need to work tirelessly every day to get more partners, attract more fans and develop more players, in safer conditions. This is our mantra. Over the past few years, we have built the fundamentals for a long-term growth plan. We have worked hard to redefine our identity and our values; broken old paradigms in pursuit of industry

development, and finally arrived at a plan that involves all the Argentine polo ecosystem, and can be summarised thus: • Boost the Argentine Triple Crown of Polo as one of the main assets in the sport all around the world. • Develop a digitisation process around the AAP organisation – we need to learn fast to grow fast. • Deploy the Argentine polo industry around the world; developing strong relationships and bonds with the other main polo associations is a must. • Deep dive on learning and education, and polo content creation – a Polo University is one of the most important plans for the AAP in the coming years. • Relaunch international competition at all levels for kids, women and men, building international calendars and formats to make this possible, such as the Women’s Nations Cup 22 goals; Palermo Women’s

Masters 0 to 40 goals; the first Women’s Polo World Cup for 2022 as well as the Presidents Cup 2021 that will be played in the same venues as the Triple Crown in December 2021; plus The Polo Champions League for April 2022, bringing all international champions of the main 14-16 goal tournaments to play in Palermo. • Redefine safety standards and invest in the safety elements of performance – the safety of our players and ponies are the most important thing for us. • Develop different polo formats – several initiatives have been gaining interest recently, such as indoor, bike and e-Wheels. We need to create conditions to test and grow every format. • Embrace and boost women’s and kids’ participation as a strong engine for getting families into the sport again. Women and kids are one of the fastest growing segments for polo in Argentina.

Opposite: Delfin Uranga. This page: Winners of the Arena Polo Grand Prix 2021. From left: Carlos Menéndez Behety, Delfin Uranga and Eduardo Novillo Astrada

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OPINION

The 1992 World Cup in Santiago, Chile. From left: Pepe Araya, Cristian Guevara, Daniel Gonzalez, Delfin Uranga, Ignacio Tillous, Marcos di Paola, Pancho Bensadon, Jose Rivas, Patricio Garrahan

The 2020-2021 pandemic challenged us to redefine the way we work and generate business around polo. A strong process of professionalisation was necessary for us, and crisis became opportunity as new business units started to grow quickly. Argentina is the country with the most high-goal polo professionals in the world. This amazing knowledge led us to think about democratising polo learning, providing more and better tools and content to everyone around the world. Supported by new technologies and innovative teaching methods, Polo University was launched in August 2020 as the first large-scale teaching platform. Today, with more than 4,000 unique users, the AAP continues promoting the sport, producing more skilled polo

players around the world to form and nourish the game in the future. On the other hand, the absence of spectators at massive events allowed us to improve and relaunch the AAP Live website and create a totally new polo experience for broadcasting matches, that proved the game could be produced and distributed in many creative and innovative ways. The AAP Live platform, with its technology and broadcasting features, is one of a kind, as you can change the camera view live with three different options; ‘chat’ with other spectators, and comment and interact with polls and widgets. Last year we broadcast more than 50 games from the Argentine polo high-goal season, and we expect to broadcast over 60 games this year,

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including the most important women’s and kids’ tournaments of the season. When I was a kid, I remember having two or three guests from abroad living in our house – it was ‘open door’ every season. My father was the founder of the FIP, and he believed polo was about creating a fraternity of friends and nations. I share his vision. I believe that polo will have a bright future as long as all the stakeholders around the world work together to make polo grow every day. I also believe that we all have a unique opportunity to put polo on the highest sporting pedestal, and for the game to become an Olympic sport again. More players, more fans, more partners, more safety. Let me invite you to share our dream. Believe me, the sky is the limit.

AAP

A NOVEL IDEA Asad Jumabhoy of La Sarita Polo outlines a practical format for playing the FIP World Cup which would be easier to organise on all fronts

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W P C S Y D N E Y. C O M ; A R M A N D A L I

n 2013, we had just finished the second of five Snow Polo World Cups in Tianjin, China. As the principal point man for the Federation of International Polo (FIP), I was pleased with its success. I had negotiated the sponsorship package with fellow Executive Committee member Peter Yunghanns; we both flew to Hong Kong and Tianjin several times to seal the deal. My trusted friends Peter Abisheganaden and Benjamin Araya spearheaded my operating committee as tournament director and master of horses respectively. We were grateful for the experience of organising and managing this high-quality international tournament. To the Snow Polo series we then added the Super Nations Cup, played during the grass season in Tianjin. With hindsight, one must view this as an inflection point in the game of polo. Lots of new players were emerging, the economic backdrop had altered after the financial crisis, and the technology boom was just beginning. A changing of the guard was taking place, passing from an older generation of patrons to a new set of enthusiasts keen to learn and play internationally. There was a growing awareness of the sport fuelled by magazines, which led to an online migration to social media and other specialist channels. In short, we saw a more connected world for polo starting to take shape. The FIP marketing committee, which I chaired, was intellectually agile and commercially experienced. My team – including Bruce Colley, Don Pennycook, Roderick Vere Nicoll and Wesley Ru – understood the need to reconsider how the game could be organised in this new era, especially on an international level. FIP’s founders (and my lifelong mentors), Glen Holden and Marcos Uranga had envisioned a global polo community, and we wanted to uphold this mission. We realised that if FIP was serious about creating competition and promoting the game, we needed to drum up excitement, events and participation right across member countries. With encouragement from

A CHANGING OF THE G UA R D WA S TA K I N G PL ACE, PASSING FROM AN O L D E R G E N E R AT I O N T O A NEW SET OF ENTHUSIASTS

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Opposite: England’s Peter Webb (centre) at the 11th World Cup, in Sydney Australia. Left: Asad at the Royal Selangor Polo Club, 2007

FIP, and the growth in digital polo content providing a meaningful platform for polo enthusiasts, we could continue to trailblaze as we’d done in Tianjin. So we turned our attention to the FIP World Cup. At 14 goals, this was our premier event and the FIP, with its Olympic recognition, could nurture a more watchable and marketable sport as we inched towards Olympic acceptance. I had played in a World Cup zone play-off and attended several finals. These had delivered exciting polo, but were rather isolated events staged with horses, not spectators, in abundance. They were played at scale with hundreds of horses at great locations, but community participation and national appreciation were not in sync. By comparison, the zone play-offs I played in 2003 in Lahore, Pakistan, were a spectacle, with superbly organised polo watched by thousands of spectators. The zone play-offs, organised under my watch in 2009 as FIP zone director in Kuala Lumpur, had a similarly vibrant atmosphere. Fast forward to 2013, and the need to inspire and engage the polo community with the World Cup demanded a new format; one that harnessed national excitement but could be played without needing to amass hundreds of horses, and also widen the choice of venues.

This page: Tianjin Snow Polo Opening Ceremony, 2013. Opposite: Asad in the plate final at The Royal Selangor Polo Club, 2019

T I A N J I N M E T R O P O L I TA N P O L O C L U B ; M O H D S YA R U L O F K I L L E R C A M P H O T O S T U D I O

With the experience and funding we had from our initiatives in China, we felt that a bitesized approach would be resource-light but engagement-heavy, spread across the world. Local communities could come and watch and engage socially at unique events, which the polo community is so experienced in delivering. The idea was to expand coverage and build a sense of national engagement. We could learn so many valuable lessons from other sports such as motor racing and football, which attracted spectators who did not necessarily possess a background in the sport. As a member of the FIP Executive Committee, I proposed and delivered a format for a new FIP Polo World Cup to the FIP Executive Committee in March 2013. The idea was to preserve the four Zone Finals and one Championship Final. Zones would be divided into sub-zones of three countries each. The mode of play would be to have the three teams play each other on a Home and Away basis, which reduced the horse requirement to just 40; 20 per team at each game, with each country hosting just two matches. Zone Finals for the larger zones could be played between two teams, with an exhibition match from local teams. The World Cup finals could be a four-country format with Semis and a Grand Final, held

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over a week, needing 80 horses with a five-chukka final. Suddenly, countries that were not obvious choices for a World Cup event could qualify. We felt it would be incredible to blend audience participation on and off the field, and breathe new life into international polo, while providing competition at a level where over 40 countries had the capability to participate.

IT WOULD BE INCREDIBLE TO B L E N D A U D I E N C E PA R T I C I PAT I O N ON AND OFF THE FIELD Purposefully planned to build the international polo community and integrate that into national sports agendas would deliver a new dimension to the polo ecosystem. This in turn would support every commercial and social aspect of the sport, putting participation into the reach of so many. Alas, none of this happened. The modus operandi, while still viable, would need to be updated to reflect the evolved realities of a polo community a decade hence. Singapore-based Asad Jumabhoy is a family polo enthusiast, playing at a handicap of three goals for most of his life. In September 2021 he marks 50 years as a player. The Jumabhoy family will have its fourth generation ready to play in a few years. The family team, La Sarita Polo, was named for his daughter Sara. La Sarita has been playing at 14 goals for much of the last two decades.

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OPINION

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Left: Adolfo Cambiaso pictured in 1991

In a league of his own Adam Lindemann reveals the untold story of Adolfo Cambiaso’s first high-goal tournament and Cellular One’s 1991 Rolex Gold Cup victory

hirty years later, it’s a good time to tell the story of what really happened, because it’s a great story. Adolfo Cambiaso was actually discovered through an inside tip I got in a Buenos Aires nightclub. No doubt without me or anyone else he would have still ended up as the greatest of all time, but here’s the untold story of when my polo team, Cellular One, won the 1991 Rolex Gold Cup, the top tournament in the US at that time. Back in the 1980s, my father sponsored a high-goal polo team for me, but mostly for himself, as he enjoyed coming to the games and smoking a big cigar. Dad gave me a very generous but realistic budget – a pittance compared to what people spend today. My team consisted of Luis Lalor, a true old school gentleman player, and 10-goaler Ernesto Trotz, who was the star number 4 of Gonzalo Pieres’ dominant and fabled Argentine Open team, La Espadana. The line-up made some sense perhaps on paper; Lalor, a “delantero”, could play up front and Trotz was a great

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“back”, but in fact, the two played horribly together and probably disliked each other tremendously. We were a certified losing combination, and in the 26-goal warm-up we lost every game. I had spoken Spanish most of my life, having learned to ski race at the Club Andino in Bariloche. I could curse in “castellano” with the best of them. I would go to Argentina every autumn to buy horses and play some superfast polo with wooden balls on strange fields. I loved drinking mate, a good asado, and I always loved Argentina and the culture of “la caballeriza y los petiseros”. Polo nights, however, were a bit slow for my NY sensibilities, and one special night in Buenos Aires I had no plans, so I decided to go solo to Le Club, a bar/nightclub favoured by all the top polo players. I ordered a big magnum of champagne, and sat by the door, ready to invite everyone and anyone for a drink and “una charla”. In walked Eduardo “El Russo” Heguy, a talented and tough player but always a great and friendly guy to me.

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This page: A young Adolfo. Opposite: Winners of the 1991 Gold Cup. From left: Luis Lalor, Adam and George Lindemann, Adolfo Cambiaso and Ernesto Trotz

‘Adam que haces esta temporada?’… and so I told him I had Trotz and Lalor and I’d need a 4-goaler to play the 26-goal tournament. After a glass of champagne, “El Russo” said of his Mexican 10-goal competitor: ‘Memo has a kid hidden way up north, his name is Adolfo Cambiaso, and he got him a ringer handicap in some remote club in Spokane, Washington. I heard he’s a talent, check him out.’ The tip made sense to me since the Argies always fiercely competed with the Mexican Gracida brothers (Memo and Carlos), who always enjoyed a home turf advantage at Palm Beach polo. Cellular One was off to a great start that season, losing every single game. In the 22-goal tournament we were horrid, and in the 26-goal we were even worse. Trotz had taught me a lot about

taking the man and hitting the back shot, only after I listened for the call to ‘Leave it!!’ Lalor had a great idea and put a champion “Pato” player called Dante Spinacci in front as our number 1, but the game was so fast he was completely lost; he was 4 goals but should have been sponsoring me, not vice versa! I was getting desperate, and embarrassed too. Then I recall Tolo O’Campo, a fun, friendly 4-goaler who never got a high-goal job, asked me to play number 1. The team had obviously hit bottom, that’s when I finally knew I was up a creek without a paddle. In an epiphany, I suddenly had a flashback to that night at Le Club, and called the USPA in desperation (this was before email), asking for a handicap on the kid that El Russo had whispered about.

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T H E T E A M H A D O B V I O U S LY H I T B O T T O M , T H AT ’ S W H E N I F I N A L LY K N E W I W A S U P A CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE

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He had bumped the 15 year old from 4 to 6 goals in a chukka. That felt like a big jump, maybe too big – was he no longer a viable choice on 6 goals? I had nothing to lose, since I had lost every game so far with my existing team. Under the weird T rule, my team was allowed to play, but now we had to play on 28 goals, so each and every game we played started with a 2 goal deficit. Trotz had given Cambiaso the fastest, wildest and borderline un-rideable horses I had in the barn, and handicap didn’t matter, he just fed him the ball and all Lalor and I needed to do was watch him score over and over again. Cambiaso was not playing the same sport we were, he was playing a new game of polo – one the world had never seen. It didn’t require classically handy horses, he just needed them fast as heck and powerful, because he never checked, he never slowed down, and he’d hit the ball on the bounce or dribble it on the end of his stick and overpower anyone in front of him. There is nothing as good as playing with an unstoppable secret weapon to elevate your own game, and suddenly I couldn’t miss even a near–side open back-shot. The team played with a level of confidence we hadn’t had all season. To get to the finals we had

THERE IS NOTHING AS G O O D A S P L AY I N G W I T H AN UNSTOPPABLE SECRET WEAPON

Adolfo Cambiaso Sr congratulates Adam after winning the 1991 Gold Cup. Opposite: Winners of the 1993 Gold Cup. From left: Matthew Gonzalez, Adolfo Cambiaso, Charlotte, Adam and Helen Lindemann with Ernesto Trotz

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‘Sorry, we have no person by that name in the system,’ they answered. I hung up in a serious panic, how could it be? That night I couldn’t sleep, wondering where this kid was. Heguy didn’t make it up, so what had happened? Perhaps he put his name down backwards, in the Latin manner? Next morning bright and early I tried again. ‘It’s me, Lindemann again. Try last name Adolfo please – try Cambiaso Adolfo!’ and she responded: ‘Yes, we have a Cambiaso Adolfo, last name is Adolfo, he’s right here rated 4T, out of Spokane, Washington polo club’. Bingo! I called his number, got a woman named Martina on the phone and asked if her son Adolfo could come to play the Rolex Gold Cup on field number one in a week. She responded in Spanish, ‘No, no, no, my son cannot travel to Palm Beach alone, not even for the Gold Cup, he must travel with his mother!’ OK, no problem Martina, two tickets it is, see you here! The USPA was trying ever so slowly to cope with the ringers that Peter Brant’s dominant White Birch Farm had been bringing in every year for a decade. Kids trained by Gonzalo Pieres on horses bred by Héctor Barrantes, kids like Mariano Aguirre, rated 0 goals. For the 1991 season they created the new “T” (temporary handicap) rule, whereby if a new player to Palm Beach came in on a T rating, a practise must be played, and the USPA reserved the right to re-rate you before the tournament. Hence the practise for Adolfo was mandatorily dictated, and it was to be played coincidentally on Memo Gracida’s practice field under the scrutiny of his friend, USPA handicap chairman Lester “Red” Armour. I still remember my dad told Adolfo to play badly, whereas I told him just to play his best. The ball was thrown in and Memo’s practice field was rough and bouncy but it didn’t matter – the kid picked up the ball on the bounce, dribbled it twice in the air and smacked a neck shot straight through the goal posts…” 6T!” ruled Red Armour.

already steamrolled Les Diables Bleus on field 1, Guy Wildenstein’s team captained by none other than the great 10-goaler Guillermo “Memo” Gracida himself, the man who had hidden Cambiaso up in Spokane in the first place. I remember Memo was unfortunately struck by a ball in the back of the helmet late in the game but was luckily OK; always a gentleman and a truly remarkable polo mastermind. In the finals we smoked White Birch, and the ’91 Gold Cup was ours – and the Rolex was mine; my daughter wears it to this day. But the story wasn’t over. Cambiaso was later taken to England by the late great Carlos Gracida, now re-rated 8 goals. They won the Gold Cup in England, and within a year, Cambiaso was re-rated 10 goals. It was literally a polo impossibility that in two years a 15 year old with no high-goal father and no stable full of super horses had risen from 4 to 10 goals. It was amazing, astounding, and totally impossible! After my ’91 victory I kept the same team, though it was a weak combination. In ’92 we took 4-goaler John Gobin as our number 1; he was hungry and played great, and we stumbled all the way to the finals of the Gold Cup by luck and pure chutzpah as the defending champs, and dead ended.

1993 came around, and no one wanted Cambiaso – he was still only 17 years old and rated 10 goals with little experience and no organisation. I guess he felt risky to most teams, and he was an outsider to the system; he had never ever even played the Argentine Open! I swallowed hard, painfully asked Lalor to leave the team and took Adolfo on again, now as our 10 goal number 2. I’d knock the ball in, then all Trotz needed to do was pass that little white ball to Cambiaso. By this time, Cambiaso was playing the best polo in the world, worth 14 goals or more. The rest is history. We won the Gold Cup for the second time in ’93. That was the last time we played together. Cambiaso Adolfo moved on to bigger contracts and better teams, winning every tournament in the world including several Argentine Opens at Palermo. In polo I was lucky, in my 20s back in the ’80s, playing in those early Bill Ylvisaker days with every great player of the day. Truth is, that nothing can compare to the thrill and excitement of the big win on field number 1 in front of the whole crowd at PBPCC. We were all so happy and so proud – 30 years later, thank you to Ernesto Trotz and Luis Lalor, and to the amazing Adolfo, but a very special and belated thank you to “El Russo” Heguy. Thank you, Eduardo, ‘mas vale tarde que nunca’!

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OPINION

Livestream A big hit Avery Chenoweth explores how different field producers are capturing live polo games, and their significance in growing the sport

IMAGESOFPOLO.COM

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fter more than a year of interruptions, sporting events are back, and for the sport of polo the news is phenomenal. Field producers from across the world are capturing games and tournaments field-side and streaming them live from their sites or on polo-streaming services. Built on new international partnerships, their mission is to grow the sport and improve broadcast quality. Whether their business model is free or subscription, they all see an unprecedented opportunity ahead in targeted advertising. For an outsider, the weave of new partnerships may seem bewildering at first. We will focus on a handful of field-producers, from Polocam in England to PoloLine TV in Europe and Dubai. The Argentine Polo Association oversees and produces games in South America. Game Polo is the company behind the Polo Rider Cup. And ChukkerTV carries the action from coast to coast in the US. In this evolving matrix, nothing stands still. Entrepreneurs are chasing technology and the opportunity for revenue is real, albeit elusive. The main business models – pay and free – seem promising, yet offer an additional potential for ads targeted at an exclusive high-end niche. However it goes, the way we watch and enjoy polo is poised to change forever. Field producers are fast and nimble. Don’t think GM. Think Tesla. Whatever differences they may have, they share a complex mission: to grow polo. Growing the sport, they agree, is crucial to its future. Which means getting the viewer closer to the spectacle to build an awareness of the challenges, and humanise and personalise the game to fans. To address the distance problem, Greg Hughes, the creator of Polocam, says that, “We have replays, drones and custom advanced graphics to try to keep viewers informed as well as keeping the production value in line with other major sports broadcasters. We aim to be a broadcaster as opposed to a live streamer.” Which means that they can cover the action at Guards, for example, and add live

commentary from experts in South Africa viewing the feed, to present the full broadcast experience. London financial manager Lee Henry credits one innovation for giving him a vivid appreciation for Adolfo Cambiaso’s passes and the genius of their accuracy which so often set up goals. And that innovation is instant replay. Created by Michael Ferreira, instant replay came into polo with his ChukkerTV startup. Ferreira created it at the behest of Melissa and Marc Ganzi. They asked Ferreira in 2014 to get their game coverage up to speed, then became partners in ChukkerTV. Ferreira worked with the USPA umpires on instant replay; it is now ubiquitous in polo. For PoloLine TV in Europe, Sebastian Amaya says they offer ‘five cameras, including drone, replays, English announcers, graphics, stats and pre-edited media’. Olivier Godailler, the marketing entrepreneur and co-founder with Benoît Perrier of the Polo Rider Cup, says innovations were

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Opposite: Polocam set up at Guards. This page: PoloLine TV in Abu Dhabi; James Beh gives an interview to Polocam

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ENTREPRENEURS ARE WORKING TO TURN VIEWERS INTO SUBSCRIBERS

Left: ChukkerTV speaks with Julien Reynes of Team France during the 2019 International Cup USA vs France at Grand Champions Polo Club

CHUKKERTV

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Left: Michael Ferreira (centre) with the ChukkerTV crew during the 2021 Beach Polo World Cup: Miami Beach

CANDACE FERREIRA/CHUKKERTV

critical in their plan to create a world league with 20 clubs. ‘For the 2021 Polo Rider Cup, it was to increase the number of cameras, not to keep to the usual one camera, drone views, and rider’s interviews after – to create more attractive content.’ Lucas Adur, the CEO of The Argentine Polo Association, says, ‘The AAP Live platform is one of a kind regarding technology and broadcasting features. You can change cam live, from three different options; you can interact with everyone watching, make comments, and interact with polls and widgets.’ Ferreira continues, ‘ChukkerTV is doing a lot of innovating,’ which he says includes rebuilding their servers and streaming at the highest resolution. ‘That’s the goal, and by 2022, we’ll be fully 4K.’ While the players are scoring goals, entrepreneurs are working to turn viewers into subscribers, whose impressions may one day support advertising revenue. The question for the niche sport, then, is whether and how far they can grow its popularity. Adur says, ‘We expect to have more than 10,000 paid subscribers soon, and this is just the beginning.’ A horizon that everyone can see. Amaya believes that for the smaller events, the ‘polo market is not big enough for the pay-per-view model’. Hughes believes that pay-per-view is ‘touch and go viability-wise. The market is very small.

The partnership with the clubs is the only thing making it viable at the moment’. Viewing numbers, he says, can depend on star power. ‘Viewers often come from marketing and that’s often handled by the club. It all depends on the size of the tournament and the players playing. If Cambiaso is involved, expect more views.’ For Godailler, the size of the Polo Rider Cup market is still unknown currently. ‘It’s impossible to give you a number as it was free, not pay-per-view, and it was my first experience in polo so I don’t know what kind of audience we could have expected for such an event. I will have a better idea when we have the full study analysis’. This will come from Nielson Sports’ global analysis. Tournaments, Amaya adds, do change the marketing picture. ‘These days the biggest polo events can attract to the field between 3,000 and 5,000. We reach at least 1,500 in every livestream – with the best finals drawing up to 12,000 viewers; I believe here lies the answer for sponsors.’ All of which raises the question: are these the identical viewers watching all the channels, or are the streaming games really attracting new viewers? ‘About 75-80% will be roughly the same people,’ Ferreira says. ‘That 25% on both our ends will be vastly different – your marketing

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tactic is where the extra 25% has come from.’ So, would that be Lexus? Or, perhaps, Bodyarmor sports drink? That divergence shows why Ferreira believes that Chukker TV, with whom he often works, is serving different markets. Adur reached beyond their niche through AAP’s partnership with ESPN South America. ‘ESPN is an amazing partner for us. They have a great know-how regarding broadcasting and match filming. We believe in long-term relationships and we both make an excellent team – to deliver an amazing product to our fans.’ After the welter of stories, innovations, and outreach beyond the market, the last variable is the price point. So much depends upon that single feather. ‘After four years improving our product,’ Adur says, ‘we have been testing different price points, and we feel that the subscription is at a fair price point right now.’ He adds, ‘A solid streaming solution needs a lot of investment and improvements every day, and that has a lot of incidence on final price.’ Although Ferreira says everyone is doing a great job, he questions the subscription model. ‘The problem is you’re never going to grow the audience beyond that niche if you’re going to charge for polo – at least here in the States, I don’t think it’s the right play. If you’re trying

to bring in the younger audience – people who might join – but you’re locking them behind a paywall? We believe it should be accessible.’ Hughes adds, ‘There is no doubt that free access gets more viewers. I think many clubs in Europe have got it right in that tournaments are free for the public but clubs often can’t afford to do that so we have to work with them to come up with a solution that works. At the moment that solution is pay-per-view.’ Pay-per-view only really became an option during the pandemic, he says, though he cautions that ‘as a stand-alone business, no, pay-per-view has to be packaged with other options.’ Rather like the high-speed action of polo, these new broadcast endeavours are evolving, reaching new markets, making innovations, adding new production values – all to raise our enjoyment and appreciation to an international standard. There is more to watch from other countries, more access to great games in the online libraries, and access for anyone anywhere who has discovered the sport. Not since 1859 when British military officers saw the game for the first time in Manipur, India, has polo had such an introduction to the outside world. Players have galloped across pitch and century, and now the screen, chasing as ever the ecstatic perfect moment that is just within reach. Now, everyone is going after it.

ESPN

Left: ESPN trucks parked at Palermo

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OPINION

Wales Follies Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales, enjoyed much merriment on his 1924 American polo holiday, recounts Joshua M Casper

s rain fell outside the palatial clubhouse of Long Island’s Piping Rock, members and guests gathered at a stag dinner to commemorate polo’s most celebrated event. The dais roared with laughter while the Prince of Wales found himself playing the straight man for the unlikeliest of duos. Straight from the Ziegfeld Follies and the House of Windsor was the newly minted act of Rogers and Wales. As some of polo’s most acclaimed scions and sportsmen watched

in amazement, Follies’ front-liner and cultural attaché, Will Rogers regaled them with timely repartee. Accustomed to sycophants and buttoned-up courtiers, Rogers’ wit found a welcomed accessory in the Prince of Wales. ‘And dang me if he didn’t just play up to me right along,’ Rogers told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. ‘That boy has humour.’ In 1924, you would be hard-pressed to count on one hand a more culturally influential transatlantic duo than

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Will Rogers and the Prince of Wales. Along with the limelight, Rogers shared the prince’s passion for polo, and they became fast friends. Prince Edward was on holiday to see the much-anticipated 1924 Westchester Cup International, but the weather would not cooperate. Three rain-outs postponed the first match for an entire week. The prince didn’t seem to mind. He had an excuse to continue his vacation on Long Island’s Gold Coast, the Gatsbian

CANADIAN ARCHIVES

Opposite: The prince (second from right) made a brief excursion to his Canadian ranch in Alberta. This page: Despite the hoopla surrounding his falls the prince was a skilled horseman. HRH was a competitive point-to-point racer before King George V made him give up the steeplechase after a fall

playground for the wealthy. It was the prince’s dream. Palaces without courtiers; all the trappings of royalty less the dusty old strictures of court that so irked the royal heir: ‘Seen from Syosset, my American prospects were most agreeable; and the proximity of New York offered assurance that the hours not occupied with polo could be spent satisfying my curiosity of that great city.’ The prince’s attraction to New York was first roused during his 1919 visit which included a ride through Broadway’s famed Canyon of Heroes. HRH’s escort for the ticker-tape parade, 1924 Olympic silver medallist Rod Wanamaker was among the veritable flock of polo greats taken by Rogers’ royal satire and the prince’s convivial reaction. After the Crown Prince’s excursion to Washington for a quiet lunch with President Coolidge, the Royal Standard was lowered. Though on holiday, wherever the prince went he created a stir. From the first moment the prince pulled into New York Harbor, press of all breeds clamoured for a photo, film, or quote. ‘Suddenly there popped out through the front row of burly newspapermen the pert figure of a young woman,’ recalled the prince. ‘In a piping voice she asked, “Would you marry an American gal if you fell in love with one?” In the delighted laughter of the other reporters and the somewhat disdainful guffaw of my British companions, my affirmative answer was lost.’

HE IN V IT ED HIS NE W FAVO URIT E VA U D E V I L L I A N T O P L AY A F E W C H U K K A S The many English debutantes who booked passage aboard the HMS Berengaria just to hobnob with the prince were disappointed a lone American girl danced with the Prince of Wales. ‘To board a steamer filled with 700 girls with their mamas and only dance with one, that guy has nerve,’ Rogers jested. The prince was so taken with Rogers, he invited his new favourite vaudevillian to play a few chukkas at the Phipps estate.

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‘In between the chukkas, I drifted over to where the prince was,’ Rogers quipped. ‘We seemed to hit it off. He said he would like to come to the Follies sometime, but I don’t know if they will let him. You know how that is… He is a handsome young feller, full of life, and a regular guy in every sense of the word.’ Prince Edward, a two-handicap, played polo almost every day, often alongside world-class competition. Wanamaker,

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drew laughter, ‘you know more about my stay in America than I do myself. Things seem to have happened to me, which I don’t remember at all.’ Nary a chukka of the International had been played after his week-long stay, but the prince didn’t seem to mind. ‘America has been trying to keep up with him,’ quipped Rogers. ‘You see, we promised England we would take good care of him and we have, up to one or two o’clock in the morning. But after that we lost track of him. England herself will have to care for him from midnight on. Lots of people have wondered when he ever sleeps.’ One of the prince’s roadsters was spotted outside the El Fay Club, a posh Manhattan speakeasy run by legendary hostess Texas Guinan, at 4:30am. Lascelles claimed the prince never left Long Island and was fast asleep by 1am. Neither was true. Though equerry Fruity Metcalfe took the blame, the prince had indeed snuck off to explore the temptations of New York nightlife. ‘We go about a bit rapidly, you know,’ said his Scotland Yard bodyguard with a wry smile. ‘His Highness is having a tremendously good time, but I say, it’s rather tight for us old chaps.’ News that “Prince gets in with milkman” and “Prince plans fling on gay Broadway” did not please the austere King

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CANADIAN ARCHIVES; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; J.M. CASPER COLLECTION

Grace, Phipps, Strawbridge, Harriman and Stoddard were among those who took turns riding with the prince – and against him. ‘All right?’ asked retired “Big Four” Captain H.P. Whitney after he rode off the future king. ‘Righto,’ responded HRH. ‘Well played, jolly well played.’ He scored the winning goal in one match and injured his eye in another, more provender for the prying eyes of the press. When the bedevilled prince crawled under a fence and quietly propped himself on the guardrail to watch a practice match at Grace Field, one tabloid mused “Fat Matrons and Giggling Girl Hurdle Fence in Chase of Prince”. Said the prince after returning to Britain: ‘If you read the papers, especially American papers, at all regularly,’ which

CHISHOLM GALLERY

Opposite: Eager onlookers await Prince Edward’s 1924 arrival at the White House for a luncheon with President Coolidge; Wales [alongside] on the polo pitch in September, 1924. Below: An advert for England vs USA, 1924

George V, (who forbade another trip to the States). When the International was finally played, it was a spectacle to see and be seen. Two extra pavilions were erected beside Meadow Brook’s iconic eggshell grandstand to accommodate 40,000 spectators. Thousands of pictures had already made Prince Edward a fashion icon such that almost every man at Meadow Brook arrived with a new soft-brimmed fedora like that of HRH, who was thus able to inconspicuously stroll to his box. ‘Despite the last-minute inclusion of 10-goal Anglo-Argentine player Lewis Lacey to play back for the British side (the rain delay gave his injured shoulder time to recover),’ remembered Edward, ‘the invincible American team, composed of Devereux Milburn Jr, Watson Webb, Thomas Hitchcock, Jr, Malcolm Stevenson and [alternate] Robert E. Strawbridge Jr, won by lopsided scores two matches to none.’ HRH did notice the unmistakable camaraderie among poloists. In 1924, the Prince of Wales recorded a Victrola gramophone album on the import of sportsmanship circulated all over the world. The first week of his holiday was planned leisure. Much as he loved his daily routine of polo, swimming and parties, the extra time gifted HRH something royals seldom have – spontaneity. The prince did a bit of everything. He went to Belmont, saw an airshow, rode the elevator to the top of the world’s tallest skyscraper (the Woolworth Building), toured the American Museum of Natural History and experienced slices of Americana like riding the subway and going to the ballpark, before proceeding to his Canadian ranch. To commemorate the International, communications magnate Clarence Mackay

W H E N T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L WA S F I N A L LY P L AY E D , I T W A S A S P E C TA C L E T O S E E A N D B E S E E N threw one of the Roaring Twenties’ most lavish affairs, where the Prince of Wales was a protagonist in a 20th-century love story only dwarfed by his own. HRH was a willing accomplice to the clandestine romance of Mackay’s debutante daughter Ellin. Like Prince Edward, Ellin Mackay bucked social convention for love. As the royal guest of honour twirled the debutante around the dance floor to royal favourite Paul Whiteman’s rendition of All Alone by Irving Berlin, Ellin quietly pleaded

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for the prince to create a distraction so she could sneak away to chat with her secret lover; her father none the wiser. As Ellin slipped away, all eyes remained on the sympathetic prince. Had he known the suitor on the other end of the phone was Ellin’s future husband, the very same Irving Berlin, as the guests raised their glasses to the future King Edward VIII, HRH might have reckoned a sentiment Berlin later put into song: God Bless America.

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Poroto Cambiaso (left) leans into Polito Pieres in the finals of the Queen’s Cup

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56_QUEEN’S CUP HH Sheikha Maitha’s UAE Polo Team held off favourites Scone Polo in the final at Guards Polo Club, with a fast and exciting second half that saw them claim the Cup. 58_GOLD CUP Thai Polo gave a strong performance at the Gold Cup final, taking the coveted title for the first time after they defeated UAE in a well-fought final match.

60_PRINCE OF WALES TROPHY A stellar performance from Thai Polo in the final where they emerged victorious over competing team Monterosso. An exciting match crowned by an impressive winning goal by youngster Louis Hine in overtime. 6 2 _ PAC I F I C C OAST O P E N August saw Klentner Ranch and Bensoleimani.com together on the field in an exhilarating game that kept spectators

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on the edge of their seats. The final moments were used well, and resulted in Klentner Ranch defending their winning streak as now three-time champions of the Open.

64_PRINCE OF WALES’ CHAMPIONSHIP CUP Park Place beat Monterosso to become the first to take the trophy at this new Guards tournament, delighting those in the stands with a strong show of skill.

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Opposite: Tommy Beresford (right) stretches past a flying Poroto Cambiaso. This page: Team captain Polito Pieres celebrates

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THE QUEEN’S CUP HH Sheikha Maitha’s UAE Polo Team emerged victorious, following her team’s 10-6 victory over Scone Polo, reports Jemima Wilson

HH Sheikha Maitha bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the daughter of the ruler of Dubai, and her UAE Polo Team beat Scone Polo on The Queen’s Ground at Guards Polo Club to claim Queen’s Cup victory in six chukkas. Out of the 15 world-class teams entered in this year’s tournament, David Paradice’s Scone Polo were favourites to win, with the world’s number one player Adolfo Cambiaso and his talented 15-year-old son Adolfo Cambiaso Junior. But incredible play from the UAE Polo Team’s Tommy Beresford, Tomas Panelo and Polito Pieres ensured that HH Sheikha Maitha’s UAE team defeated Scone Polo 10-6, adding their name to the trophy for the first time. Little separated the two teams at half time, but with Pieres attacking relentlessly, Tommy Beresford played a crucial role in UAE Polo Team’s victory, adding two penalty conversions, while also collecting three assists. An organised defensive effort led by Beresford and Panelo kept Scone Polo off the penalty line and enabled them to dominate possession to begin the counterattack. HH Sheikha Maitha received the prestigious silver cup, while 21-year-old Tomas Panelo was named the Cartier Most Valuable Player, and JB Bleach, an 11-yearold chestnut mare owned by the UAE Polo Team and played by Polito Pieres, received the Cartier Best Playing Pony prize. This pony was bred by the former England polo team captain James Beim. Before the main match presentations, Laurent Feniou presented the trophy to the

AN ORGANISED DEFENSIVE EFFORT LED BY BERESFORD AND PANELO KEP T SCONE P O L O O F F T H E P E N A LT Y L I N E

Park Place team, winners of the subsidiary final that had been played earlier in the day. Park Place, without their injured patron Andrey Borodin, defeated Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha’s King Power team 12-9

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in a very close game that delivered some wonderfully fast-paced and exhilarating polo. King Power’s patron did not go home empty handed though, as he was named the Most Valuable Player.

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THE GOLD CUP Thai Polo was an unstoppable force against UAE in the Cowdray Gold Cup Final, reports Carolina Beresford

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Left: MVP Nico Pieres pursued by Tommy Beresford. Below: The Hine family celebrate. From left: Indi, Milly, Ned, Robyn, Louis and Andrew

The English season came to a head with a glorious edition of the Gold Cup at Cowdray Park Polo Club. Thirteen 22-goal teams entered the competition in the hope of lifting the prestigious trophy. The best players of the competitive polo circuit took to the field, and after an exciting three weeks of play, Harald Link’s Thai Polo NP emerged as the champions. Thai Polo’s performance in the final proved that they are the rightful winners of the Gold Cup. At the beginning of the season, however, the months ahead did not seem to promise much silverware for the organisation. Straight off the bat, they won the Prince of Wales Trophy, with Rufino Bensadon and Ale Muzzio joining the young Hine brothers in the team. However, changes in the line-up – now with Gonzalito Pieres and Juan Gris Zavaleta playing alongside the Hines – resulted in their Queen’s Cup efforts falling flat. They lost three consecutive games, failing to qualify for the latter stages of the tournament. But Thai Polo morphed once again at the start of the Gold Cup. The Hine brothers still formed the base of the team, but the organisation welcomed Nicolas Pieres and James Harper, maintaining the 9-7-4-2 goal formation. Pieres and Harper have an excellent track record playing together, and their confidence was evident. Thai Polo faltered once but recovered quickly, gaining momentum that carried them through to the final. There, they faced a powerful UAE – composed of Sheikha Maitha, Polito Pieres, Tomas Panelo, and Tommy Beresford – fresh from their recent

T HEIR SELF-A S S UR A NCE PRE VA ILED DESPITE THE THUNDER AND RAIN, AND T H E Y T O O K C O N T R O L O F T H E M AT C H

Queen’s Cup victory. Sheikha Maitha’s organisation commands respect wherever they play in the world. The talent of their players and the quality of their horses put them in a favourable position to win the title. But Thai Polo rose to the occasion.

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Their self-assurance prevailed despite the thunder and rain, and they took control of the match from the get-go. They were an unstoppable force, and in a fairytale ending, they won the final, securing the Gold Cup for the first time.

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THE PRINCE OF WALES TROPHY Thai Polo emerged as winners from a record 12 teams, capturing the title with the 13-12 victory over Monterosso thanks to a golden goal in overtime by youngster Louis Hine, reports Michael Foster

Agustin Merlos, scoring 15 goals to also push his team into a shootout for a place in the final. However, in the shootout, Thai Polo’s duo of Alejandro Muzzio and Rufino Bensadon defeated Emlor, and Monterosso’s

Ignacio Toccalino and David Stirling bested Park Place to book their spot in the final. Entering the tournament with a 21-goal handicap, Thai Polo excelled with a balanced line up and this continued in the final, where

THAI POLO EXCELLED WITH A BAL ANCED LINE UP AND THIS CONTINUED IN THE FINAL

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The 2021 English high-goal season began with The Prince of Wales Trophy hosted by the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club. Through two rounds of league play, the level of competition highlighted the parity between the record 12 teams as 50% of the games were decided by just one goal. At the end of the league stage, four teams remained undefeated with a 2-0 record, including Park Place who was led by tournament scoring leader Facundo Pieres with 18 goals. Following closely was Emlor’s

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Louis Hine scored the golden goal to capture the title with the 13-12 victory. Deploying a strategy of Alejandro Muzzio managing the game from the back with the pass, collecting a game-high five assists, Thai Polo’s trio of Rufino Bensadon, Ned Hine and Louis Hine produced on runs to goal to contribute at least two field goals each. Despite shooting just 22% from the field, Monterosso matched Thai Polo stride-forstride due to the penalty shooting of Ignacio Toccalino, who converted seven of his nine attempts in the game. Overcoming their foul trouble, Thai Polo continued to pressure Monterosso in the late stages of the game and it was Muzzio who left the ball in front of goal for 15-yearold Louis Hine’s game-winning neckshot in overtime to win.

Opposite, from left: Rufino Bensadon, Pelon Stirling, Alejandro Muzzio and Mackenzie Weiss. This page, from left: Louis and Ned Hine, Rufino Bensadon, Alejandro and Santi Muzzio

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Klentner Ranch held off Bensoleimani.com to end the 16-goal season with its third Pacific Coast Open title, reports Jemima Wilson

Coming off an undefeated run and continuing their domination throughout the Pacific Coast Open bracket play, Klentner Ranch (Jesse Bray, Jacob Klentner, Justin Klentner, Santiago Toccalino, Tomas Garcia del Rio) established themselves as the team to beat. Despite replacing injured team captain Santi Toccalino unexpectedly in the semi finals, Klentner Ranch regrouped with Tomas Garcia del Rio and secured their spot in the

Pacific Coast Open Final on Sunday, August 29, against Bensoleimani.com (Ben Soleimani, Santiago Wulff, Tomas Alberdi and Iñaki Laprida). Leading throughout the first half on penalty accuracy, the defending champions held off their opponents’ second-half drive to cap off their second consecutive USPA tournament title 11-9. ‘As we kept winning every game, you would have expected mounting pressure, but

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it wasn’t like that because Santi was really instilling us to take it one game at a time,’ says Jake Klentner. Although the final was the first full game with Tomas Garcia del Rio, Klentner Ranch found it easy to incorporate him into the team. Sticking to their original gameplan for the final, Klentner Ranch benefitted from the similarities between the two 8-goalers. ‘Santi had a very long

THE PACIFIC COAST OPEN

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SHOWCASING HIS PINPOINT ACCURACY F R O M T H E P E N A LT Y L I N E , D E L R I O Q U I C K LY C R E AT E D A S I G N I F I C A N T L E A D team meeting the night before the final,’ Justin Klentner said. ‘He told us, “You can do it! Tomas plays like I do, very simple and classic. We’re going to play the way we’ve been playing and Tomas is going to fit into our group. We’re not going to try to adapt ourselves to his style.”’ Showcasing his pinpoint accuracy from the penalty line, del Rio quickly created a significant lead with four unanswered goals for Klentner Ranch. Silenced throughout the first two chukkas, Bensoleimani.com opened the third with a penalty 2 conversion, but Bray and del Rio immediately countered with a penalty 2 each. Fighting to gain some forward momentum before the end of the chukka to get his team back in the game, Laprida forcefully broke up a Klentner Ranch play, which enabled Wulff to hit a tail shot to

goal, resulting in a 6-2 score to Klentner Ranch at half-time. Reevaluating their offensive strategy, Bensoleimani.com came alive in the second half and quickly began to narrow the gap in the fourth chukka, with three consecutive goals. Opening the fifth with his third goal of the game, Bray briefly extended the gap to three goals, but Alberdi retaliated with back-to-back penalty 4 conversions to keep the game competitive. Firing on goal to end the chukka, del Rio gave Klentner Ranch the 9-7 advantage as they headed into the final chukka. With the trophy still within reach for Bensoleimani.com, the battle continued in the sixth as Bray opened the scoring once more, with a goal on 2021 Silver Cup BPP, Cell Tower. Picking up another pair of penalty

goals, Alberdi brought the scoreboard within one, with less than a minute remaining in regulation. Jumping on a breakaway and sealing Klentner Ranch’s victory, Bray ended the game with a final score of 11-9. Contributing five goals to the tally, Jesse Bray was named Most Valuable Player. ‘It’s great to win MVP, but it means the team did well,’ Bray said. ‘It wasn’t just me out there, everyone played really well today, and to win a final like this the whole team has to play well.’ Bray also received the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club award for Best String of the Season, and Best Playing Pony honours were presented to 15-year-old Disney, a grey mare played by Jesse Bray as a spare in the first and sixth chukkas. Receiving her second blanket, Disney was previously BPP of the 2017 Pacific Coast Open Final. Setting his sights on another trophy, Justin Klentner hopes to one day add the US Open Polo Championship to his list of accolades: ‘I want to win the US Open Polo Championship; it needs to be on my tombstone when I die!’

Opposite, from left: Jesse Bray and Iñaki Laprida race for the ball. This page: Winners Klentner Ranch, from left: Jesse Bray, Tomas Garcia del Rio, Jake Klentner, Justin Klentner, Santiago Toccalino

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THE PRINCE OF WALES’ CHAMPIONSHIP CUP Park Place made history at Guards Polo Club as Andrey Borodin’s squad became the first team to add their names to the 22-goal cup, says Diana Butler

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There was little between Park Place and Monterosso for much of this thrilling match, with both teams producing strong defensive play. However, Alessandro Bazzoni’s Monterosso team made Park Place work hard for their win, keeping themselves in contention until the final bell. Park Place had a narrow 3-1 lead at half-time, but the players and the packed grandstands knew that the advantage was on a knife-edge and could change at any time. There had only been a goal between these two sides when they met in the league stages of the club’s newest tournament, again in favour of Park Place (9-8), and this match was heading the same way. In the fifth, Facundo Pieres turned up the heat a little, making the most of some space to push Park Place ahead 4-3. When he had the chance to successfully convert a penalty, many wondered if this was the moment that Park Place would now run away with the match. Ignacio Toccalino had other ideas. He successfully converted a penalty to put Monterosso very much back in contention. Facundo Sola had two chances for Monterosso in the sixth but sent them wide and in this final period the score remained stuck at 5-4, confirming Park Place’s victory. John Collins, the founder of Talacrest and sponsor of this new high-goal tournament, produced some amazing prizes for all players – and match officials – on finals day, including Cartier watches for the winners. Juan Britos was named Talacrest Most Valuable Player, while Machitos Puccini, owned by Monterosso and played by Facundo

Sola, was named the Talacrest Best Playing Pony. The seven-year-old bay mare is, with good reason, one of Sola’s favourites. Appropriately for a title sponsor who is the world’s most experienced classic Ferrari dealer, having sold over 1,750 Ferraris, valued at more than $1billion, the teams were not introduced on the field on horseback but from an impressive array of Ferraris. A former high-goal polo patron himself, John Collins said when signing this new partnership: ‘I have been involved with polo at Guards Polo Club for more than 30 years and so am thrilled to be able to support the club in this high-goal competition. I know from first-hand experience of playing high-goal at Guards that the opportunity for players to compete at the highest level on the best grounds is invaluable.’ Five teams entered this first edition of the Prince of Wales’ Championship Cup, with each team playing the others over the previous three weeks. Both teams in the sub final for the Talacrest Trophy – Sheikha Maitha’s UAE Polo Team and András Tombor’s Bardon – had met before. In their previous encounter the UAE team had won 13-8. Matias Machado, who was later named the Talacrest Trophy Most Valuable Player was outstanding in the first half, putting Bardon comfortably ahead 7-2. UAE Polo Team closed the gap in the second half, forcing this match into extra time. This was the first time in the tournament that overtime had to be played. Bardon were awarded a penalty early into the extra time, which Fran Elizalde converted to win the match 10-9.

From far left: Facundo Pieres and Facundo Sola race for the ball in the final; the victorious Park Place team (from left): Andrey Borodin, Juan Britos, Facundo Pieres, Will Harper

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