Polo - The Sport of Kings
Polo is one of the world’s oldest team sports, originating in Persia as early as the 6th century BC where it was developed primarily to train cavalry units. Later it was taken up in India and China, where it was so popular during the Tang dynasty that it was depicted in artwork from that era. It has been suggested that its name was derived from the Tibetan word “pulu” which means ball.
The modern game, however, can be ascribed to the British presence in India where, in Manipur, colonials saw “pulu” being played and took up the sport themselves. In 1834 the first modern polo club was established in Silchar, a town in Assam.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the British succeeded in spreading this new sport to many countries throughout the world, which is perhaps the reason that it now enjoys popularity in the United States of America, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Argentina, where it attracts a following almost as fanatical as football. Many Argentinean girls display pictures of polo players on their bedroom walls along with posters of Lionel Messi or the latest music sensation.
These days polo remains above all a popular sport among the independently wealthy and the upper classes. As a result polo clubs have acquired an air of exclusivity, played within an ambience that is still decidedly privileged and aristocratic.
Since the mid 1960s, when the field of La Playa was first created specifically to host games, Sotogrande has been the home of polo in Southern Spain, joining prestigious venues such as Guards Polo Club, Egham in the UK, Deauville and Chantilly in France, Palm Beach and the Hamptons in the USA, and Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The Santa María Polo Club in Sotogrande is the place to be, particularly during the spring and summer months, when many polo tournaments attract members of European royal families and international celebrities. Santa María has already hosted corporate events for prestigious marques such as Bentley, Cartier, Deutsche Bank, Lexus, Chrysler and Bang & Olufsen. With such fabulous weather and close proximity to a range of luxurious accommodation it’s not surprising that Sotogrande has proved a popular polo venue on the European calendar.
However, don’t imagine that polo is only played in warm climates! More recently an exciting variant has seen the sport enjoying a welcome renaissance in the cold. The St. Moritz Polo Club has been holding tournaments in the snow since 1983 and this newest aspect of the sport has inspired exciting offshoots of winter polo, most notably in Moscow.
The Otrada Equestrian Centre was the venue for the 2008 Mercury Snow Polo Cup Final, which attracted some of Russia’s top politicians, businessmen and media personalities. Team sponsor, Beluga, provided an ice sculpture theme with an ice bar and guests were able to enjoy a glass of the finest vodka along with a spoonful of caviar.
Sponsors, players and guests alike agreed that the Moscow weather was ideal for snow polo, since the temperature failed to rise above -15ºC. It surely won’t be long before Russia is named along with the United Kingdom and Argentina as one of the world’s great exponents of modern polo.
Visit Santa Maria Polo Club at www.santamariapoloclub.com
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