Volume 17 • Issue 2 • March 2012 • £5.50
www.polotimes.co.uk
FIGHTING TALK
Five-goaler Max Routledge on young players’ prospects
Honoured:
Peter Grace OBE
Focus:
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Sun, sand and champagne With the main focus on snow, arena and grass polo across the globe in this month’s issue of Polo Times, we thought we’d bring you something different for the Big picture – in the form of beach polo. This stunning photograph was taken at last September’s Veuve Clicquot Polo on the Beach at Watergate Bay from the balcony of uninventively named Cornwall retreat “The Hotel”, which provides the perfect viewing platform for spectators. Organisers of the event announced in February that the sixth Polo on the Beach will go ahead this year on the evening of Tuesday 11 September. Last year, more than 2,500 people turned out to watch Joules take on First Great Western, where the latter – led by six-goaler James Harper – secured victory. w For more information about Polo on the Beach, see www.watergatebay.co.uk/polo
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Feature
Interview – Peter Grace OBE
The man for all seasons
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Peter Grace OBE
Despite a relatively late start in polo, 73-year-old New Zealander Peter Grace has been a pioneer of the UK game for almost 40 years, growing arena polo and – with the help of his family – striving to make learning as inclusive as possible
Feature
Caroline Stern in Surrey and Berkshire
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n 29 February, legendary coach Peter Grace was awarded the OBE for services to polo. However, perhaps surprisingly, he didn’t pick up a mallet until he was 29 years old. Growing up in Huntville, near Wellington, he preferred showjumping, dressage and eventing , whilst farming three family-owned sheep stations. He equalled the New Zealand showjumping Puissance record and allowed British professional showjumper Pat Smythe to compete his horses but not to buy them. However, Peter did not want to jump professionally and his wife Elizabeth “decided that he needed another sport”. Elizabeth persuaded a polo-player cousin to phone up and beg Peter to help him with a problem horse: “I had never seen a game of polo,” explained Peter, “but I turned up and was put straight into a six chukka game! By the end of it, I was getting into it and having the best fun I’d had for ages.” Peter had his first lesson shortly afterwards, when New Zealand Captain Tony Kaye gave a two-day clinic at the Rangitiki Polo Club. Six years later he took up a challenge from his uncle Hamish Wilson, then chairman of the New Zealand Polo Association, who informed
“Nobody was teaching polo when I arrived in the UK in 1973” – Peter Grace OBE Photographs courtesy of the Grace family
Peter that “they would never let him play polo in England.” Peter and Elizabeth arrived at Cowdray Park and stayed at the Park House Hotel, “a home for itinerant polo players”, before renting Ambersham House from the late Lord Cowdray. One of his first ventures was perhaps the earliest indoor polo venture in the UK, at Stocklands in Hampshire. Despite playing successfully off a four-goal handicap in highgoal, Peter soon decided to move to a more u Left: Janey, Pippa, Victoria, Katie and Peter Grace, photographed at Ascot Park in the mid-1990s
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Feature
Sponsorship in polo
Branding exercise Polo sponsorship is a hot topic in the UK this year with Cartier switching its backing to the Queen’s Cup and Guards still searching for its replacement for International Day. We talk to the most recognisable brands in the game to find out what attracts them to polo
John O’Sullivan
Photographs by Centaur
investigates
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port as we know it today simply wouldn’t be the same without sponsorship. Whether you’re attending top-class international competition at Palermo, Wembley Stadium or the Nürburgring, or simply watching a junior rugby game at your local park – the impact of sponsorship is unavoidable. Sponsorship money allows football clubs to spend tens of millions of pounds on new signings and to offer exorbitant wages of £200,000-a-week to their top players. In Formula One it allows the leading teams to spend hundreds of millions developing their high-tech cars, which, as a result of the sponsorship, compete all over the globe. In grass-roots sport, sponsorship helps to pay for the essentials – the kit, ground rental, coaching. Although perhaps not as glamorous, these sponsorship deals are just as important to those who play.
Polo is no different. The king of games has been transformed by sponsorship and, put simply, today’s highest profile Test Matches and tournaments would not exist as they do without it. Neither, of course, would the grass-roots clubs and the UK’s flourishing junior programme. Every year new luxury brands in the jewellery, motoring, leisure and drinks sectors flock to polo. It is obvious what the game gets out of these deals – the HPA and Guards are rumoured to want a six-figure sum for the sponsorship of this year’s International Day. We seek to find out from the game’s top sponsors what’s in it for them.
Cartier If one sponsor more than any other has become synonymous with polo at home and abroad over the last three decades, it is Cartier. The French luxury jeweller and watchmaker first sponsored the HPA International Day at Guards in 1984 and has been part of the furniture ever since. The jovial Arnaud Bamberger, executive chairman of Cartier UK, believes Cartier and polo are a perfect match. “Polo is the king of games, and Cartier is the king of jewellers,” he said, simply. Last July’s centenary edition of the Coronation Cup marked the last year of Cartier’s sponsorship
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Audi’s head of PR Jon Zammett, HPA chairman Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers, the Duke of Edinburgh and Cartier UK’s executive chairman Arnaud Bamberger, with players Jack Richardson and Johnny Good on International Day last year. Mr Zammett and Mr Bamberger are two of the most important decision-makers for UK polo sponsorship
Cartier UK’s managing director François Le Troquer added: “Polo for us is not a commercial event. We don’t display our products and we’re not trying to sell them. For us, we like polo because it is about passion. More important than creating useful business connections, polo for us is a chance to share our passion in common with other polo aficionados.” Like leading champagne house Veuve Clicquot, who have sponsored the British Open for the Gold Cup at Cowdray Park since 1995, the brand Cartier became as famous in polo as the tournament that bore its name. During the 27-year association, International Day at Guards widely became known as the “Cartier International”. However last summer Cartier announced that it would not be renewing this deal and instead signed a three-year contract to sponsor the Queen’s Cup. Mr Bamberger explains: “At times, people need to www.polotimes.co.uk
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change. Especially when you are at the height of your powers, not when you are already beginning to fall down. “So, strategically, after doing the same thing for so many years we felt that, while polo remains a very good association for Cartier, we could u
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➘ Fact box To help speed up the game, the HPA’s arena polo rules call for teams to hit in from the backboard immediately after conceding a goal, rather than both teams riding back to the centre for a throw-in. Interestingly, Argentina’s Javier Tanoira, in his respected treatise on possible changes to polo, suggested that a similar rule would speed up the grass game.
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The evolution of the arena game
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Is indoor the new outdoor? With two high-profile arena internationals scheduled for March in the UK, Polo Times considers the growth of “indoor” polo, from its origins in the US in the 19th century, to its increasing fashionability in recent years and the similar new forms of the game it has spawned
Herbert Spencer investigates
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Jonny Good leads the race for the ball during the recent HPA National Club Championships at RCBPC
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arena and there are fewer upkeep costs than for a grass ground. And with only three players and four chukkas, a team needs less horsepower.
grounds were built around New York. Arena polo really came into its own after military and civilian teams began playing in the indoor drill halls of US Army armouries in cities like New York and Chicago. An Indoor Polo Association was formed in 1921 (merging with the US Polo Association in the 1950s). Between the wars many of the topranked grass players, including 10-goalers of that period, also competed in the arena. The world’s first arena international was in 1923, between the USA and Great Britain for the John R Townsend Arena Challenge Cup in New York’s Squadron A Armoury. Surprisingly, the transatlantic competition was not played for again until it was revived in 2008, at Great Meadow Polo Club, Virginia. The USPA still uses, somewhat confusingly, the terms “outdoor polo” – the traditional game on grass – and “indoor polo” – the arena game – even though most arenas are outdoors rather than under cover. Players are assigned “outdoor” and “indoor” handicaps. The association estimates some 1,200 of its u
USA
➘ Fact box
➘ Fact box It is likely that today’s recommended size of an arena, 100 by 50 yards, is based upon the playing areas in the US Army’s armouries where the game first became popular in America.
The USA is not only by far the biggest arena country, but was also the first to play this version of the game. When newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett introduced polo to America in 1876, his first practice matches were not outdoors on grass but in the arena at Dinkel’s Riding Academy in Manhattan. So arena polo can be said to predate the traditional game in the US, if only by a few months until the first grass
Photograph by Gillian Hughes
ith not one but two important arena polo internationals being played in England this month, it’s time to have a look at how the three-man game is faring worldwide. Arena polo has long been established in the US and the UK, but how extensively is it played in other countries? Some traditionalists who play only fourman polo on grass grounds turn up their noses at the arena game, seeing it as inferior and only good for training. Devotees of arena see it differently. It is not just for beginners, they say, but is a “gladiatorial” contest demanding as much skill as traditional polo. With a playing area about a tenth of the size of a grass ground, there are no long gallops but plenty of fast, breakaway sprints, quick stops and tight turns by the ponies. The horse-high boards around an arena add another dimension; bouncing the ball off the boards is a wellpractised tactic. Polo in the arena, it is argued, is more
spectator friendly. Ranged along the boards, spectators can almost reach out and touch the players as they gallop past and the action is never far away as it regularly can be in grass polo. Arena rules are designed to speed up the game, providing almost continuous action goal-to-goal. There is also a financial advantage to arena polo. A club needs much less land to install an
There have only been four players with 10-goal arena handicaps, three Americans and one South African (“Smoking Joe” Henderson) playing in the US. The most recent arena 10-goaler is Tommy Biddle, son of retired USPA chairman Tom Biddle of Aiken, South Carolina.
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Reports
FIP Snow Polo World Cup – Tianjin, China
“Hong Kong” victory poses questions for FIP James Mullan rounds up the action and reaction from the inaugural FIP Snow Polo World Cup at Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club in Tianjin – where victory for Hong Kong – a side, perplexingly consisting of two Argentines and a Brit – left FIP officials with egg on their faces
Hong Kong South Africa
Photographs by Action Polo and Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club
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et’s be clear, there is nothing wrong with money – the formidable entry of China and the vast amounts they are spending on the game is naturally welcomed by many and, long term, should be of benefit to polo as a whole. In particular, Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club’s rapid achievement in its infrastructure, ponies, administrators, events and large-scale tournaments is nothing short of extraordinary. However, when the present holders of office in national and international polo associations allow their heads to be turned by the sums of monies on offer and ignore their fundamental principles of existence in order to get their hands on the “folding stuff ”, one is entitled to ask whether or not the game of polo is being brought into disrepute. Thus, when five-goal Argentine player Martin Inchauspe lifted his second FIP World Cup in less than five months, this time representing Hong Kong as opposed to his home country Argentina, at an FIP-sanctioned tournament, it begs the question – is polo really serious about its international reputation? Whereas every other side in the FIP’s first Snow Polo World Cup fielded a team selected by their nation’s polo association, and containing nationals from that country, eventual winners Hong Kong – a recently reclaimed region of China without a single active polo club – were given licence to put
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together a representative side made up of whomever they liked. The newly formed Hong Kong Polo Development and Promotion Federation duly selected Argentines Inchauspe and Guillermo Terrera to play alongside British ex-pat John Fisher, who lives in Tianjin with his family and who works for Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club. Hong Kong lost just once (against England in the group stages) as they made their way to the final. They beat France in the quarter finals before exacting revenge over England at the semi-final stage. Hong Kong
then overcame South Africa in an entertaining final, 7-4. Though the surface was much improved from the club’s previous snow polo tournament in 2011, FIP tournament director Pete Abisheganaden sensibly brought forward the 2012 final because warm temperatures forecast meant the artificial snow was unlikely to stay frozen for long. “The final made for a good game,” said Karen Kranenburg, an organiser of polo tournaments worldwide for more than a decade. “And, despite being brought forward, at last there were some spectators there. The rest of the tournament had been like a ghost town, so it was good that they got some people in. “However, from a sponsorship point of view, those that had supported the event were not well looked after, particularly given how much they had been asked to spend. And then, when you consider that the Hong Kong team that won was in no way representative
English four-goaler John Fisher goes in search of a goal for Hong Kong in the final with South Africa
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FIP Snow Polo World Cup
Reports
Martin Inchauspe lifts the Snow Polo World Cup with his Hong Kong teammates, applauded by FIP president Eduardo Huergo (left) and tournament financier Pan Sutong (in grey)
of anything remotely Cantonese, the event undermined itself from a branding point of view even further. “It’s a shame, because the polo was actually generally very watchable. The problem was Most valuable player
Guillermo Terrera everything else surrounding it would need complete restructuring if the tournament is to have a successful future. Though their Australian polo director Derek Reid did very well, laying on the polo is only half the job. The sponsors need to be taken better care of, the hospitality for the players needs much more careful thought and the local spectators that finally came to watch need educating as to what they are witnessing. All that was sorely lacking, and so, for the most part, it felt like a monument to extravagance without any understanding of the culture of polo and its people.” However, Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club’s financier – Hong-Kong native Pan Sutong – is unlikely to see it that way. By throwing money www.polotimes.co.uk
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at the FIP and being sanctioned to host a tournament with a world title has undoubtedly put the club on the map. Televised live on freeto-air channels in Hong Kong throughout the 11 days of competition, Hong Kong’s victory will have guaranteed huge coverage for the tournament, the club and, crucially, the vast residential development that is being sold off surrounding the polo fields. But, by looking after number one, the result the Chinese organisers wanted is surely not the one the FIP would have hoped for. Hong Kong’s victory only serves to reiterate the unsavoury point made by Herbert Spencer’s column in the November/ December issue of Polo Times: that the ethos of the FIP has been compromised. All FIP tournaments in the past have been designed to create a level playing field on which all member nations can compete, and article 3.2 of their constitution states that the principal mission and objective of the FIP should be to “enhance the image and stature of polo on an international level”. In this case, however, the world’s governing body left themselves open to ridicule by creating and u ratifying a new World Cup at short notice
The numbers game
Financial information Prize money (payable to national associations) Winning team: US$130,000 Runner-up team: US$90,000 Third team: US$70,000 Fourth team: US$50,000 Quarter-finalists: US$20,000 Individual payments Players were paid US$1,500 for each goal on their handicap Sponsorship Sponsorship packages varied from US$30,000 (for signage at the event) to US$3million (for title sponsorship, though this was not sold) Team sponsorship was believed to be around US$120,000 Polo Times, March 2012
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Youth polo
Presented by
Max factor Polo Times gets an exclusive audience with one of Britain’s most exciting young professionals in his home in Wormley near Haslemere, where he talks about balancing the ambitions of his polo career with his Olympic show jumping dreams
High-goal team for 2012: La Bamba De Areco
However, polo isn’t the only sport on the agenda for the 21-year-old. He’s also at the top of his game in show jumping, largely thanks to his eye-catching stallion Typhoon S, which he keeps at his base in Surrey alongside his other show jumpers and a selection of polo ponies. During the winter, it's all systems go in the show jumping arena, while his polo ponies have their well-earned break. Routledge rarely goes abroad during the cold months to play polo, although this spring he will travel out to Palm Beach, Florida, to practice with Facundo and Nico Pieres ahead of their season here in the UK. Fortunately, girlfriend Emily Llewellyn – an international event rider – is also based at Paddock Woods and helps Routledge keep his show jumpers ticking over while he’s away, and one-goaler Jason Stubbs and two Argentines will be getting the polo ponies ready for the start of the season. What I want to know is how did Routledge, from a family with no history of polo or show jumping, get so good – at both?!
Number of polo ponies: 19, nine of which are playing high-goal
How did your polo career start?
Georgie May in Surrey
H
idden off the beaten track in the heart of Surrey is Paddock Woods Stud, the home of Max Routledge. This year will be the five-goaler’s fifth high-goal season, where he’ll be lining-up alongside Facundo and Nico Pieres to play for Jean-François Decaux’s La Bamba De Areco team.
Profile Age: 21 years old Lives with: Parents Maggie and Allen and girlfriend Emily Llewellyn
Show jumpers: seven Stallions: six Ones to watch for 2012: Beluga (polo) and Typhoon S (show jumping)
Photographs by Georgie May
Headgrooms: Zoe Walker (show jumpers) and Juan Corbalan (polo) Best friends in polo: Ollie Cudmore and Richard Le Poer Often seen at: Guards Polo Club and the All England Jumping Course, Hickstead Other animals: three cats, three dogs, two pigs, numerous chickens and geese 60
I followed my brother, Guy, into Pony Club polo when I was about 10 years old. I liked riding and had been show jumping since I was four so I thought I’d give polo a go. I played my first adult match with Robert Graham and Will Healy at Ham when I was 11 and a year later I played my first season with Alan Kent in the 8-goal. In 2008, I had my big break in polo aged 17, when I was asked to play for Ellerston in the high-goal, largely thanks to the support u Max unwinds between exercising his horses by relaxing in the kitchen, the hub of the Routledge family home
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At home with Max Routledge
Youth polo
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Sidelines
The dramatic opening ceremony
England’s Jamie Le Hardy collects his third-place medal
Derek Reid
FIP Snow Polo World Cup, 2-12 Feb Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club, China
Money talks Santiago Gaztambide strikes the ball for Argentina in the semi final
With almost 160 polo ponies in action, 12 three-man teams, a playing surface made from several thousand tons of artificially created snow, live TV coverage and gala dinners each evening where the tickets cost US$3,000, this was not a tournament for the faint-hearted. However, though there were few spectators during the first week of the event, the final proved popular.
Brian Hammond
Umpire Ollie Ellis
w Photographs by Paul Terry and Neil Egerton at Action Polo Keeping an eye on the action
w Read the full Polo Times review of the action on page 44
Eduardo Huergo
FIP tournament director Pete Abisheganaden
Your snowy photos – from across the UK, February 2012
Snowy days
John Stanley caught Rachel Oddie’s pony Cody on camera
After the bitterly cold snap in February, we gathered together photographs of ponies in the snow. Roxanne, owned by Kimberley Gallagher
Nicki Averill’s Popcorn admiring the scenery
Ice-cold water from a frozen trough at Holbrook Farm
Kimberley Gallagher’s companion Pepper
Diamond Polo Cup, 20 January 2012 Dubai Polo & Equestrian Club, Dubai
Guests dazzle in Dubai Alejandro Novillo Astrada and Mohammed Al Habtoor
Yana Zia
The first annual Diamond Polo Cup, sponsored by Emaar, Veuve Clicquot and Rolls Royce, took place at the end of January. VIP guests including the region’s most prominent businessmen and women, socialites, celebrity guests and royalty, graced the red carpet. Organised by Saeed Bin Drai and Amr Zedan, the exhibition match was won by Bin Drai Polo team. w Turn to page 58 for a report from the tournament
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Nicolas and Astrid Petrachi and their children
Ryan Weston and Louisa Northcote
Saeed and Jelena Bin Drai (far right) and friends Ellen Meng
Vanessa Vockmann
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Sidelines Hong Kong’s John Fisher, Guillermo Terrera and Martin Inchauspe celebrate with Derek Reid and Rowland Wong
Javamond Pavarodom and Patcharapimol Youngprapakorn
VIP guests stomping divots
Best playing pony, sponsored by Apes Hill, with the rug presented by Linda Williams Privy Councillor Air Chief Marshal Kamthon Sindhavananda
Khunying Finola and Dr Kris Chatamra
Operatic entertainment
Pablo Jauretche
Wanphen Sakdathorn and Nunthinee Tanner
BMW-B.Grimm Thai Polo Open, 11-21 January 2012 Thai Polo & Equestrian Club
Charitable fun
John Kent’s Cranberry Sky
Keeping close to the haylage Ruth Baldwin’s ponies at sunset
Nine teams from South East Asia competed in the Thai Polo Open for the Princess Cup in January. Finals day, attended by more than 1,400 guests, including celebrities and diplomats, raised money for HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirinidhorn’s Chitralada Vocational School Project. Sponsors’ tents offered shopping and games and there was a cocktail party and fireworks evening following the final. w See pages 52-53 for a Thai Polo round-up
Lebanese singer Elissa
Ana Maria Ramirez and Nabil Hussein Ashri
Sarita Chintakanond with son Natarit
Claudia Zeisberger (second left) with her family
Harald Link and HRH Crown Prince Abdullah Shah of Pahang Lina Samman and daughter Tamara Gary and Melissa Tiernan with their kids Interested youngsters
Saeed Bin Drai and Faris Al Yabhouni
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Rodolfo Ducos
Tipravee Phoochai
Ed Olver and Caroline Link
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