The Polo horse

Origins, competition, gold cup

If we were to establish two rankings of polo sport opens, the following would appear in each of those lists. On one hand we would find several of the most powerful men on the planet in economic terms, with fortunes that may be estimated, in most cases, in thousands of millions of dollars. These would be of Swiss, Swedish, British, Jordan, Arab, Australian, Italian, French and Venezuelan origin. All, of course, would have something in common: a very low profile. On the other hand we would have several of the best polo players in the world, with a very good standard of living also, and–impossible to deny–who work for about five months a year far from home. And, no doubt about it, the majority of these are Argentines.

The link, therefore, is the following: super-millionaire; super-passionate about polo and top-level-polo-player who get together to play, in this case, the high-goal British season tournaments that end in the very exclusive and traditional Gold Cup.

polo-horse Its history is great and impressive. The Cowdray Park Polo Club is synonymous of this sport worldwide, and the “home” of British polo par excellence. The fact is that for almost 100 years–the first official British polo match was played there in 1910–one breathes that unique scent of horses, mallets, goal posts and polo balls in that corner of West Sussex. One may ask oneself why Cowdray Park got to occupy that position. It is all due to the efforts of John, third Viscount of Cowdray, who died in 1995, establishing the legacy of one of the most famous clubs in the world. During the post World War II years, John Cowdray, with only a dozen polo ponies of his own, but with great enthusiasm and many contacts, decided to give the club a boost, and in order to do so, got in touch with all the power factors of his time. And, of course, one of these was none other than Winston Churchill.

In 1953, four years after having played with a British team in Buenos Aires, thanks to an invitation by Jack Nelson and Luis Lacey, Cowdray organized the Coronation Cup at his club–it had been played for the first time in 1911 to celebrate the beginning of King George V’s reign–with teams from England, United States, Argentina and Chile. That tournament ended with a match attended by 10 thousand people, including the British Sovereigns. Thus, Cowdray Park’ reputation as a social and popular venue was such, that in 1956 the Gold Cup was played there for the first time. The same Gold Cup that was held in June and July for the 52nd time, and which is the most prestigious tournament of the British season: the British Open.

Royal Polo in Britain

Those same players who in August once again land in Argentina to play for the glory of it in Palermo, were seen rambling around the outskirts of London during the British summer trying out polo horses, practicing and advising enthusiastic patrons, very often far from expert, and in some cases pretty thick about the belly. Those very patrons are the ones who hire those very players for a season or even for only a tournament, to give themselves the pleasure of wearing the same shirt and to be able to give some lustre to their social relations. But their ideal would be to win a cup in order to have their photo taken with the Queen, Prince Charles or his sons, or simply with some equally powerful personage like themselves so as to enhance their own profitable businesses even more.

polo pony There are bankers; oil-field owners; owners of IT multi-nationals; diamond mines or construction and textile businesses and even the daughter of the greatest distributor of Coca Cola in the United States, for example, among those mega-millionaires. Some of these, who are quite capable of paying a fortune to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars simply for their company/business to appear linked to real stars of that sport on that British scenario, offer their players complete stables, with grooms and vets included (almost 100% are Argentines), as occurs in the case of Adolfo Cambiaso, who has the Albwardi Arabs–very close to the government of that country, no less–as patrons. Other more “modest” patrons sign less juicy contracts and the polo player must see to the transfer of the ponies, their grooms’ per-diem and the renting of stables. But how much can an Argentine top player make per season? 500 thousand dollars at most when the patron is generous. Otherwise, the fee is about 200 thousand dollars, because the player must pay for the transfer of about 10 horses (5 thousand dollars each, approximately), or they must pay for the rent of their home (almost 18 thousand dollars for three months), to mention just a few of the more expensive items.

polo match Legend has it that Argentine players carry out a big business through the sale of polo horses in the United States or England. Naturally, the best ponies return to Argentina or are simply not taken abroad, awaiting the high goal season in our country during the last quarter of the year. All the same, there are always offers: they say that a foreign magnate showed an Argentine polo player a check for 240 thousand dollars for three of his best mares, and another offered 100 thousand when he became obsessed with a mare that kept winning prizes at Palermo, until it suffered an injury and never played again.
Behind these millions and millions of pounds, euros or dollars–in these cases the color of the bills becomes irrelevant–, there are three particular players that appear on the scene in England, who are not patrons but who are more powerful than any of them: Prince Charles and his two sons. The three are polo lovers, and the heir to Elizabeth’s throne reached a respectable 4-goal handicap when he was cheating on Diana with Camilla, his former mistress, now become his wife. The three participate in charity matches, mainly, and enjoy themselves with the Argentine players. In fact William, the second in the line of succession to the throne, at one time asked Eduardo Heguy to lend him a pair of white jeans because he had forgotten his. And putting aside any “royal” gesture, he returned them with a casual smile, apologising for not having washed and ironed them.

However, the players remain rather apart from a life that is very different. They insist that they are much happier with their grooms, asados and rounds of mate. They say they are just doing their jobs. And they don’t do too badly at that.

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