Ponylines

y BEACH POLO WORLD CUP Fourteen polo teams returned to Miami Beach for the ninth annual Beach Polo World Cup. The action began on 25 April with a kick-off party at The Raleigh Hotel, introducing the eight women’s teams that would do battle the following day in the Maserati South Beach Women’s Polo Cup. The Heys USA team took the top honours while the Bulgari team finished first in the lower bracket. A press party introducing the six men’s entries was held that evening. Two days of play took place in the flooded and by 11am it was decided to cancel the finals. A Monday match was arranged 11am it was decided to cancel the finals. A Monday match was arranged between Yellow Cab andault. Despite the disappointment of the finals being rained off, players and patrons alike made to return 201hen rains came. The sand arena was flooded and by 11am it was decided to cancel the finals. A Monday match was arr 160 words. Alex Webbe

y BEACH POLO WORLD CUP Fourteen polo teams returned to Miami Beach for the ninth annual Beach Polo World Cup. The action began on 25 April with a kick-off party at The Raleigh Hotel, introducing the eight women’s teams that would do battle the following day in the Maserati South Beach Women’s Polo Cup. The Heys USA team took the top honours while the Bulgari team finished first in the lower bracket. A press party introducing the six men’s entries was held that evening. Two days of play took place in the 12-goal competition. By virtue of net goals, the Maserati team were eliminated and the Yellow Cab v The Raleigh finals were set when the rains came. The sand arena was flooded and Monday match was arranged between Yellow Cab and The Raleigh, but player logistics did defen’s entries was held that arena was flooded and by 11am it was decid while the Bulgari team finished first in the ed to cancel the finals. A Monday match was arr evening. Two days of play took place 12-goal 175 words. Alex Webbe

Apichet (Tal, above right) and Aiyawatt (Top) are the sons of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the founder of the Thailand Polo Association. In the UK, the brothers play with Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres. Top won the Queen’s Cup in 2015, but lost in this year’s semi-finals. He also triumphed in last year’s Gold Cup, but lost out this time round to Tal.

Both siblings are involved in the family businesses: Top was recently promoted to CEO of the King Power duty-free chain in Thailand, where Tal is head of human resources, overseeing 8,000 staff. Srivaddhanaprabha Snr is the owner of Leicester City Foxes, who won the 2015/16 Premier League in May, despite the bookmakers setting odds of 5000–1.

Earlier this year, the brothers won the Asia Cup at Bangkok’s VR Polo Club, owned by their father, and in July, the family’s Berkshire club, Billingbear Park Polo, hosted the league games of the FIP’s 90th Ambassador’s Cup, in which all three men competed. In August, Tal took a team to Gstaad and Vichai competed in St Tropez.

Congratulations to Dubai and King Power Foxes for their respective victories in the Queen’s and Gold Cups, and also to La Indiana, the finalists and underdogs in both. They really stretched their opponents on both occasions.

Next up was the HPA’s International Day at Guards. The Commonwealth opposition for the Coronation Cup was made up of players from four continents and the game one of the best for years. The teams were evenly matched, but Fred Mannix and co hit the ball more cleanly and accurately.

Having won the Golden Jubilee trophy at the Beaufort, an Ireland team was unable to repeat its success in a match played after the Coronation Cup and was runner-up for the Diamond Jubilee trophy. In August, another team set off for the FIP European Championships in Berlin and won all their games under the captaincy of HPA chairman Stephen Hutchinson. It was a triumph and ensured the HPA was represented, as it had not been able to send a team away during the English season.

Women players also appeared on the global stage, with a game set up by Tamara Fox between English and Argentine players at Cirencester. The heavens opened as they rode on, but they still played a good, fast game. The latter were supported by Adolfo Cambiaso – it was he who had come with enough ponies to mount the team.

A group of four umpires oversaw pretty much all the 22-goal in 2016. They achieved better consistency and blew the whistle less and less for plays that involved no danger. The alignment of the rules between the USPA, AAP and HPA has certainly provided an impetus to improve the umpiring and hopefully this will continue and can be repeated at the lower levels.

Wherever you may be – playing in the sun, on the snow or in the arena, or taking a break from polo until next April – I wish you all the best and look forward to welcoming you back here in 2017. { RMPA OPEN FINAL Defending champions Thai Polo were on thrilling form in the Royal Salute Cup final of the RMPA Open at Royal Selangor, but were certainly made to work by Royal Pahang.

Llorente got Royal Pahang off to a great start, scoring the first goal to add to their 1½ on handicap. Raul Laplacette (above, far right) replied, but the first chukka ended 2½–1. In the second, Thai Polo scored five goals – three by Laplacette, one by Carlos Pando (far left) and a 30-yarder by Dato’ Harald Link (second from right) – while Tengku Shazril scored one for Royal Pahang. Thai Polo were leading 6–3½ when Royal Pahang fought back with three goals. At the end of the third chukka, they led 6½–6.

At the horse-change break, Laplacette magicked a comeback with a goal, Pando created havoc in front and Quzier Ambak (second from left) took Thai Polo into the lead 8–7½. Laplacette then scored a final goal to give Thai Polo an incredible 9–7½. Shazril was named MVP and Champagne, a nine-year-old chestnut Argentine mare, played by Laplacette, scooped BPP. Peter Abisheganaden

{ CASA DE CAMPO Equestrian enthusiasts can experience the thrill of world-class polo at the 7,000acre Casa de Campo Resort & Villas in the Dominican Republic. Its polo facilities — which include three playing and one practice field — are among the best in the Caribbean, and the luxury establishment is proud to have the largest string of polo ponies under a single brand in the world.

Beginners and experts alike can take advantage of equipment and personalised training, as well as pony hire for stick-and-ball tournaments, and matches are played from early November to the end of April for those content to cheer from the sidelines. Away from the polo fields, guests can take advantage of Pete Dye-designed golf courses (above), a marina, spa and tennis courts. casadecampo.com.do

y LUCIEN BARRIÈRE DEAUVILLE CUP Located 10 minutes’ walk from the beaches of Normandy, the Deauville International Polo Club has welcomed top players from around the world for decades. The Lucien Barrière Deauville Cup comprises four tournaments – the Gold Cup, Bronze Cup, Ladies Polo and Beach Polo – and attracts more than 10,000 spectators every year. Boundless energy, generosity and competitiveness contributed to the success of its 2016 event, which saw the Talandracas team storm to victory against La Esperanza and claim the coveted Gold Cup. It was a particularly momentous game for Edouard Carmignac (far right) and his son Hugues (second left, pictured with, from left, Santiago Gaztambide and Guillermo Caset), with the Carmignac duo winning their fifth title, thanks to Hugues’s winning goal, which took the final score to 9–7½.

y FIP AMBASSADOR’S CUP The FIP celebrated its 90th Ambassador’s Cup in July. It was held at Ham Polo Club, which is celebrating its own 90th year in 2016 (see p66). The HPC is the home club of FIP president Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers (below, back row, centre), its chairman for the past 22 years. The tournament was a lot of hard work, but a great success, owing to the support of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who allowed the first two rounds to be played at his high-goal grounds at Billingbear. He also played in the first match, for Thailand, alongside his sons Top and Tal. Thanks must also go to The Ritz Club, which sponsored the opening cocktail party and two tables at the HPA’s dinner at Guards.

All visitors enjoyed playing in the home of the modern game as well as having the opportunity to stay on and watch the annual HPA International on the Saturday, when England played the Commonwealth for the coveted Coronation Cup. Marion Cairns

Edward Horswell, of the Sladmore/Twelve Oaks polo team, is the director of the Sladmore Gallery in London. I started playing polo in 1968. My first pony was a grey gelding called Goblin, who was once likened to a Maltese cat.

For me, the perfect game is estancia polo played with my daughters and close friends, either at Twelve Oaks, or El Remanso in Argentina. Back when I was playing six days a week, it was all about winning, but today, it has to be fun as well.

A memorable moment was winning the 1982 Archie David Cup at Guards. Despite many failed attempts since then, this year, I decided to have one last try and entered a team with three friends. To our surprise, we won! Coming 34 years after that first victory, it was very special. I still remember the last seconds of the 1983 Harrison Cup final at Cowdray Park like it was yesterday. Half a goal down, it looked like it was all over for us. Suddenly, my brother John intercepted their hit-out and backed the ball, leaving me to effect a simple tap-in as the final bell went.

In 1975, I met 10-goaler Bob Skene while working in Argentina for Eddy Moore. He remarked that, while a prisoner of war in the Far East, the only thing that had kept him sane each night was replaying, shot by shot, all his important polo games. I don’t have his clarity of recall, but I have many great memories from the past 40 years. [Former Cream drummer and polo- ranch owner] Ginger Baker said polo was more addictive than heroin. It’s certainly a hard habit to shake. The combination of speed, control and passion is intoxicating.

pattaya – thailand

• paddocks & stables for 200 horses • international cross country course • rege ludwig international polo school (november - april) • tournaments up to 14 goals (november - april) • thai spa & salt water pool

The second World Nomad Games took place in Kyrgystan in September. The mission of the event is to promote the revival and preservation of the historical heritage of the world’s nomadic peoples. In 2016, no fewer than 40 countries competed in sports that included bone-throwing, and hunting with eagles and dogs. The most popular and competive event was kok-boru – an early and violent form of polo in which two teams battle for control of a decapitated goat.

The Ellerstina Gold Cup will not be played this year. In an effort to engage international patrons, the AAP is to hold a 20-goal Gold Cup tournament during the Argentine Open. The preliminary games will be played at the Association’s grounds in Pilar, which has seen the addition of four new fields, and the final at Palermo. Six teams of the eight required have already expressed an interest in taking part. Participants will be allocated preferential tickets, parking and viewing facilities at Palermo for The Open. Entries close on 1 November. For more information, contact torneos@aapolo.com.

The 52nd Jockey Club Open was held from 14 to 24 September and generated some noteworthy news on several counts. Firstly, a woman, Lía Salvo (2), played with Adolfo Cambiaso (10), Pablo Mac Donough (10) and Juan Martín Nero (10) for El Paso Polo Ranch-La Dolfina for the first time. Secondly, Eduardo and Miguel Novillo Astrada played in a new formation with their youngest sibling, Alejandro. Salvo and her teammates beat the Novillo Astradas’ La Aguada Las Monjitas, 16-12. Finally, 18-year-old Juan Cruz Merlos began playing with his father, Juan Ignacio Merlos.

The 123rd Argentine Open will be played in two leagues of four teams. Each team will play each other and the winners of each league will go direct to the semi-finals. The second-best line-up will play the team in third place in the opposite bracket as quarter-finalists. This will add two dates of play and ensure all games have impetus. Under the new system, the best six teams will qualify for the 2017 Triple Crown and the bottom two will go into the qualifiers. It’s thought that, after success in the English season, Argentine umpires will blow fewer fouls and allow games to flow (see p24). y THE PERFECT HORSE Heroism is an unpredictable thing. In a crisis, it is impossible to know who will come to the rescue. That was certainly the case at the end of World War II, when an unlikely team of Nazis and Americans risked their lives to save Vienna’s Spanish Riding School’s Lipizzaners.

To prevent them falling prey to the starving Russian troops descending on Austria, a band of Nazi horse lovers joined with US troops to deliver them into Allied hands. In The Perfect Horse (Ballantine, £22), Elizabeth Letts tells the story afresh, incorporating new insights.

The Lipizzaners might have been lost were it not for polo. General George S Patton, who supported the mission, was a sportsman who believed ‘playing polo was the closest a soldier could come to experiencing combat during peacetime’. Colonel Hank Reed, responsible for seeing it to completion, was also a highly accomplished player. For anyone interested in history, horses and heroism, this is a book not to be missed. Wendy Williams

y TWO LIVES: A SOCIAL & FINANCIAL MEMOIR When I was chairman of Cirencester Park Polo Club, I was expected to warm up the lunch guests on big charity-match days with a speech of welcome. I always began thus: ‘Polo is a game that, if you have to work in order to afford to play it, you hardly have time to play it.’ In my book Two Lives, A Social & Financial Memoir (Austin Macauley, £9.99), the polo references are thus sandwiched between accounts of my life in the City, for that’s how I paid for those four-legged, voracious consumers of hard-earned cash. When I started playing, polo was governed at club and HPA level largely by retired army officers. As the big money arrived, I watched it become a business. While I loved to play, the social side left me cold, as did the decline in standards of behaviour. If I’ve been too critical, I don’t regret it. The game lives on, like my happy memories of playing it at England’s most beautiful venue: Cirencester Park. Stanislas Yassukovich

x PIAGET POLO S In 1979, Piaget created the iconic Polo watch – a solid-gold timepiece that accounted for a third of its sales. It continued to be a brand stalwart, and this year marked the launch of the new and improved Polo S. Housing an automatic precision movement behind its sapphire case back, it has a cushion-shaped dial within a round 42mm case.

In August, Ralph Richardson (left) and Tommy Beresford from the Piaget Young England team staged a head-turning practice on Regent Street ahead of the Polo S’s launch at the nearby Watches of Switzerland store. Guests could take part in a virtual-reality match and enter a competition to win a polo lesson with England pro Malcolm Borwick.

Piaget has selected eight international brand ambassadors for the Polo S: as well as Borwick, they include the Canadian actor and producer Ryan Reynolds, and the Swiss bestselling novelist Joël Dicker. piaget.com

NAME: KIAN HALL NATIONALITY: BRITISH HANDICAP: 2-GOAL

I started stick-and-balling with two Argentine pros when I was 11. For three years, I groomed for lessons and they taught me everything about horses and polo. I first played farm chukkas, followed by low-goal at Sussex clubs Burningfold, Knepp and Hurtwood. I learnt so much and had to work very hard for it.

There’s never a dull moment in a polo match – it’s very strategic and you need to be completely focused. When I’m playing, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be and nothing else I’d rather be doing.

It’s a privilege to be on the pitch with players such as Pablo Mac Donough, Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres, Lucas Monteverde, Adolfo Cambiaso and Juan Martín Nero. I’m also in awe of the grooms, who devote their lives to polo, but without the glory and experience of playing. I feel very lucky to be part of the polo community.

Five, including the Gold Cup, and I was on the winning team of the Queen’s Cup and the Holden White 8-goal at Cowdray.

The Queen’s Cup final was amazing. It was so much fun to play in front of Cambiaso and Nero.

NAME: NIGHT LIGHTS SEX: MARE ORIGIN: IRELAND

Light Nights is a nine-year-old thoroughbred by Acclamation (UK) out of Grecian Grail (Ireland). She was trained by Mick Easterby in Yorkshire and I bought her to our Sussex farm when she was four years old. I’ve been riding her properly for just three years, but I could tell she’d be a great polo pony from the first time I sat on her.

She was very easy to make and has always had great speed and agility – owing to that, and her strength, she’s very effective in high-goal polo. I played her in this year’s Gold Cup, and for five minutes during the fourth chukka of the Coronation Cup, and she performed so well, she was awarded Best Playing Pony. That was hugely rewarding both for me and the team who help me throughout the season. Jack Richardson

{ IBIZA POLO CLUB With the opening of the Ibiza Polo Club in 2011, the community of fans and players is growing in the Balearics. Owner Gabriel Iglesias had brought beach polo to the island back in 2010 and it was so successful, it was repeated for two years and then became a regular fixture – and the club’s star August tournament. Adolfo Cambiaso has taken part twice and many other high-handicap players have also participated.

This summer, the club had a busy tournament calendar, hosting the third edition of the Mixta Cup and the first of the Father & Son Cup, both in July. In September, it hosted two weekends of the Viva Mexico Fest 2016, during which cultural, artistic and gastronomic events are held alongside sporting tournaments.

Thanks to Ibiza’s mild winter weather, it is possible to play polo on the island all year around. The club will soon be promoting its Christmas and New Year tournaments, when it plans to surprise guests with a variety of entertainment, from music to fashion and, of course, no shortage of Argentine roasts! ibizapoloclub.es