Polo’s ultimate playground

Polo Club Saint-Tropez, known more familiarly to locals and international visitors as Gassin, is one of those few special places in the world of which it’s almost impossible to take a bad picture. From the verdant, rolling acres of the club itself – set in the hills just above St-Tropez – to its glittering backdrop of the Côte d’Azur and the beaches of Pampelonne, this is a scene that has always combined glamour with natural beauty. And that was the starting point for the vision the club’s new co-owner had in autumn 2014, when he embarked on an ambitious redevelopment project.

After decades with the redoubtable Corinne Schuler as sole proprietor, last April, Alshair Fiyaz, a keen player and patron, became her business partner in Gassin, with the intention of turning the club into the premier European summer polo destination. With Schuler’s approval, Fiyaz, a Pakistan-born businessman and philanthropist now based in Monaco, appointed his friend and polo manager Justin Gaunt as the club’s director, and Gaunt has since devoted himself to the task that he has been set.

‘It’s been an extraordinarily busy time,’ says Gaunt during a rare visit back to the UK. ‘Alshair is a great admirer of what Corinne has done at the club, and she is still very much involved, but we all felt that it was time to take things to a new level. The idea is to make sure Gassin is the place where international polo patrons want to spend the European summer.’

Polo Club Saint-Tropez has many natural advantages: its eponymous local town is a byword for sophisticated vacationing. It is also one of the very few clubs in the world where everything a

Previous pages The stunning Côte d’Azur is the setting for the eponymous polo club known as Gassin This page, from top Fast-paced matches take place on four playing felds; a bird’s eye view shows the extensive redevelopment underway before the 2015 season Opposite An architect’s impression of the new-look Polo Club Saint-Tropez

patron or player might require is on site, and the local beaches and St-Tropez itself are just a short scooter ride away.

‘Most of the polo year is incredibly intense,’ says Gaunt. ‘We think that, come August and September, many patrons and players want a slightly different tempo: a place where the family actually wants to hang out for a month, where everyone can have relaxed fun, but where the polo is also competitive and challenging.’ To that end, a major refurbishment of the club’s facilities was undertaken during the autumn and winter months to ensure that, by the time summer comes around, Polo Club Saint-Tropez will welcome its guests with a whole new confidence. The club has added 294 new stables, built by Loddon – which fitted out the Packer estate at Fyning Hill

and Urs Schwarzenbach’s Black Bears team headquarters – using compressed bamboo, its latest environmentally friendly product. Nineteen new grooms’ apartments and nine stylish players’ houses have been completed, together with a huge upgrade of the playing areas, with two new Tifton fields as well as a state-of-the-art indoor arena. All the water necessary to keep the estate in pristine condition is being drawn from Gassin’s underground reservoir. Plans are also underway for a new clubhouse to be built for the 2016 season. All in all, it’s not hard to see why Gaunt has been so busy over the past ten months.

‘I’ve worked with Alshair for some time now, and he is one of these guys who simply doesn’t believe in doing things by halves,’ says Gaunt. ‘As a patron himself, he knows exactly what’s required, and has left no stone unturned in addressing every single detail. What we hope is that other patrons will see the huge investment and see this as a great place to come – for them, their families, friends, players and grooms.’

Of course, Polo Club Saint-Tropez already has a long history of attracting patronage from all corners of the globe. Royals from Europe and the Middle East, and polo royalty such as the Gracidas and MacDonoughs, as well as a glittering array of celebrities, have all graced Gassin’s fields and attended the legendary parties that follow a match.

While no stranger to the St-Tropez party scene, Fiyaz himself is characterised by a relaxed discretion that sits well with his determination to ensure the club’s reputation as a place where the great and the good can let their hair down in informal circumstances.

‘I hope people will come and make up their own minds,’ he says. ‘In the end, we all want to have fun, play good polo and be able to relax among like-minded souls. It’s very important to me that we get the mix right: yes, we want the club to be successful, but it will never feel too commercial. And our sponsors need to be able to fit in, too, so the atmosphere has to be spot on.’

It was exactly this relaxed atmosphere that drew luxury watchmaker Richard Mille to the South of France as the first new major commercial partner to sign up as a sponsor. ‘Our association with polo started back in 2011, when we were sponsoring high-goal polo in the United Kingdom and Richard met Pablo MacDonough,’ says brand spokesperson Alice Keehn. ‘We started working with Pablo, who is now our ambassador, to design a watch that could withstand the forces incurred during a polo match. That became the RM 053, which has an armoured case in titanium carbide, with its movement tilted at 30˚ so it can be seen easily from the saddle.

‘From there we came to Gassin, and it’s been such a great place for us that we have gradually increased our involvement to the point where we are now a full brand partner. We’ve also developed two limited-edition watches for the club: the RM 030 Automatic Calibre and the RM 011 Flyback Chronograph. Both feature the club’s logo as well as white ceramic cases with navy blue detailing that embody its official colours.’

Gaunt has a very clear vision about what makes a natural commercial partner for Polo Club Saint-Tropez. ‘Everyone talks about shared values, but actually, in a polo club, that’s crucial,’ he says. ‘Unlike in many other sports, all of the participants mix together socially, so if there’s a real connection in the way people see the world, that makes a huge difference. Patrons and players are here to have fun and meet interesting people, so when we started looking for the right partners, it was never going to be a case of looking for all kinds of sponsors – they have to be the right fit, and Richard Mille could not be a better one.’

As with every ambitious project, there will be almost certainly be some nervous anticipation at Gassin this summer, when the club prepares to welcome its first visitors since the changes were made. However, Fiyaz is sanguine. ‘You know, the main thing is to create something that we’re all really happy with,’ he concludes.

His own initiation into the top level of polo came through friendships with Kerry Packer and the legendary Pieres family, who still supply many of his ponies. ‘This is a passion, not a business project, so we must be confident that others who share our passion will also share our view of what it takes to make a special polo club. Corinne Schuler has already done a great job here; now it’s ours to help her take Gassin to the next level.’ polo-st-tropez.com

This page Each year, the polo teams of the International Polo Cup parade around the harbour of Saint-Tropez