PTJune 2010 p10 - 11 News
21/5/10
16:13
Page 2
News AIMING HIGH
VIRILE POLO PROS: Roddy and Zoe Williams had their first child last month (a boy), and Malcolm Borwick, Jack Kidd, Adolfo Cambiaso, Gonzalito Pieres, Pablo MacDonough and Agustin Merlos are also expecting – many of them in the same month, October.
CLARE SHEIKH: PT’s trusty Pakistan correspondent swaps her mallet for boxing gloves on 10 June to step into the ring in aid of Action on Addiction. “The Sheikh” represents FTSE 100 insurers RSA in the City v Canary Wharf Challenge.
JAMIE PACKER: stone-picking is underway at Manor Farm, Selham, where the Australian patron is establishing a high-goal base for the future. Expect him back in 2011, though we hear the plan for him to lease Cowdray House is off.
SWINGING LOW
THE POLO STALLION Dandy Constancio, who had an illustrious career at stud as well as in 30-goal, has died of a heart attack. The 20year-old collapsed from an aneurysm moments after covering his first mare of the season, with his owner Aurora Eastwood on the end of the rope. Player and breeder Eastwood, who had stood the stallion since 2009 at her Hampshire base, says: “He got off the mare, literally went ‘boom’ on the ground and was gone. Of all the ways to die it’s probably the best: it was so quick.” The bay, a Thoroughbred and registered Polo Argentino, was once jointly owned by Kerry Packer and Belgium-based Dutch patron Dorothy Huynen, who bought him from Gonzalo Pieres. After buying Packer’s share and moving the horse to Europe, Huynen passed the stallion to Eastwood in England when she retired from polo. Constancio was by Dandy Beam, a multiple winner over six furlongs and out of Conservadora. Two of his sisters
Photograph by Alice Gipps
HORSEY PARTYGOERS: PT has learned that polo pony owners can share supplements with their string – and avoid hangovers in doing so. Keith Foster from Fine Fettle Feeds recommends his Happy Tummy charcoal for humans as well as horses. “If you’ve had a heavy session, take a teaspoon of Happy Tummy with a pint of water and a 1g vitamin C tablet,” he says. “The charcoal soaks up the nasties that give you a headache, the water rehydrates you and the vitamin C stimulates your immune response. It works like a charm!”
First time unlucky for seasoned stallion
Dandy Constancio, who died suddenly at home after covering his first mare of 2010
(by Dandy Beam) played the Argentine Open: Gata, with Carlos Gracida, Gonzalo Pieres, Lucas Criado and Mariano Aguerre, and Diana, with Lucas Criado. Gata won best playing pony twice at Tortugas. PT gathers that Pieres had a brother of Constancio, too, who died in a lightning strike. Constancio has progeny in Argentine high-goal, and covered 20
mares in his first UK season last year. Eastwood has two of his sons that are two years old, and plans to keep the better one entire. She also stands the stallion Kalankari in Hampshire. However, Eastwood is kicking herself that she only collected enough of Constancio’s semen for four mares. “It’s available at £1,000 a pop,” she says, “as once it’s gone, it’s gone!”
Deadly disease strikes in the south
JOHN GOODMAN: the US patron and owner of International Polo Club Palm Beach turned himself in after an arrest warrant was issued charging him with manslaughter for the death of student Scott Wilson. Wilson, 23, died after Goodman allegedly ran a red light in February, crashing into Wilson’s car.
TONY RAMIREZ: the leading polo photographer had a head-on with a local player on a lane between Trippetts and Midhurst, West Sussex. Both cars were written off, but mercifully the drivers emerged largely unscathed.
FRANCKS PHARMACY: the Florida chemist has had its licence revoked for 90 days following an inquiry into the death of 21 Lechuza Caracas polo ponies at the 2009 US Open.
POLO CINEMA: David Marlett, the man behind embryonic polo film Of Kings and Cowboys, declared in a melancholic blog on 8 May that the project would fold unless finance was found. “It remains a beautiful, powerful film-to-be-made,” he wrote. “It will, if made, be a success. I am confident of that.” Any takers? 10 June 2010 www.polotimes.co.uk
The grass sickness risk rises markedly in spring and TWO VALUABLE embryo youngsters have been struck down summer. Joyce McIntosh, secretary of the Equine Grass with grass sickness and put down. The yearling and twoSickness Fund (EGSF), says: “May is the peak. This year we year-old fillies, which were kept at pasture in the southheard about 23 cases by mid-May, but those reported are east of England by a leading high-goal organisation, the tip of the iceberg. People don’t realise it can affect showed signs of illness in late April and were put down them, but it’s vital it is reported, so research advances.” within days of each other. The disease, which damages the The disease affects all breeds, sexes and ages – with nervous system, leads to paralysis of the gut and more the greatest number in three- to four-year-olds – UK-wide. than 90 per cent of horses that contract it do not survive. Research indicates that the weather “It was horrendous,” said the setpreceding a significant number of cases up’s UK horse manager, who was keen has been dry and cool, 7-11 degrees. to raise awareness of the increased risk Multiple cases are infrequent, but of grass sickness at this time of year, McIntosh knows an owner who lost half though she was unable to name the a dozen ponies in a fortnight. In acute organisation she works for. “The twoand sub-acute cases horses are put year-old had colicky signs, but the down, but some can be treated if their disease is hard to identify, and her condition is chronic. bloods came back normal. The vets Symptoms include signs of colic suspected grass sickness, and ruled This horse, a four-year-old Warmblood such as rolling, pawing the ground or out colic before taking a biopsy of the intestine and sending it to Newmarket [to called Gulliver, survived grass sickness looking at the flanks. The horse may sweat, lose weight and have muscle tremors, difficulty the Animal Health Trust]. The result came back as grass swallowing, a distended stomach and hard dung. In chronic sickness and she was put down.” cases signs may be mild. As to cause, the theory under As a precaution the manager had brought the horse’s current investigation is the involvement of toxins from field-mates in, but a few days later a yearling looked sick. She says: “We hoped we might have caught it early enough Clostridium botulinum, a soil-associated bacterium. For a mine of information or to ask for the EGSF’s very to treat. But when the vet stomach-tubed her and half a helpful leaflet, visit www.grasssickness.org.uk. bucket of liquid came out, she was put down.”