sport
In summer, polo events are to Sundays what weddings are to Saturdays, punctuating the season with the irresistible allure of new people and places and parties in marquees. If you’re down with the right kids (for it’s all Bright Young Things running these events nowadays; well connected marketing whizzes and former army officers with eyes on a more glamorous prize) it is feasible polo has pencilled its way into your diary from now until September. Perhaps you made Cartier at Guards Polo earlier this month or you have the Gold Cup at Cowdray Park lined up for July; naturally you’ll have joined the gang at MINT Polo in the Park, because that was just down the road at the Hurlingham Club. Certainly you will know that polo seems a tad cooler than it used to be – in part because of the said BYTs but also because it seems to have loosened up a little. In some cases events have slickened up their act and in others they have taken the stuffiness out of the hospitality; less debentures and more adventures, shall we say. So for example, in the VIP area at the Veuve Clicquot-sponsored Gold Cup last year it was out with
a seating plan and table service and in with pot luck seating and luxury picnic baskets to share (the Veuve on tap remained). More than ever, too, guests at these events seem to have moved on from simply seeing polo, as one friend put it, as “lots of posh people playing – both on the field and off it” to an occasion where watching professional standard sport can be combined with meeting people who, though thankfully not exclusively ‘posh’, are more often than not successful, interesting, international and fun. If you’re talking influence per square foot polo events are prime property. This is a fact not lost on the founders of British Polo Day. Relatively new on this scene, BPD was established in 2009 by Tom Hudson and Edward Olver, both 32 and former members of the Household Cavalry, who saw an opportunity for connecting the wow factor of a polo match with its intrinsic Britishness, creating an event that promoted both the sport and Great Britain overseas. Using their extraordinary connections (the inugural BPD event was hosted with the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi and HRH Prince Harry was the star player
If you’re talking influence per square foot, polo events are prime property. This is a fact not lost on the founders of British Polo Day
the KENSINGTON & CHELSEA magazine
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