Polo Position

Sun Herald

Sunday March 13, 2005

By Laura Demasi

Once considered a slightly stuffy, blue-blood affair, polo is fast becoming the sport of choice among young urban professionals - and attracting big corporate sponsors.

Horses pound the field in pursuit of the ball, riders bouncing on their backs and reigning in the powerful beasts in the race to score a goal. Off the field, amid

a village of corporate marquees - gatecrashers are politely turned away at the Bollinger tent while the Qantas guests sit down to a three-course meal - the pounding fades into the background as the hum of chatter and champagne glasses chinking takes over. Some people have gone the full nine yards - hats, high heels and suits; others are relaxed in a country-estate kind of way in jeans and checked shirts.

It could be spring carnival at the races, except the sound of horses galloping in fits and starts seems never to stop (the back-to-back matches can go for up to an hour each) and instead of studying the form guide, onlookers are busy networking. CEOs and company directors mix with lawyers, small-business owners, PAs and stay-at-home mums. And everyone, it seems, including a smattering of celebrities at today's Polo by the Sea tournament in Narrabeen on Sydney's northern beaches, is under 40.

Welcome to the sexy new face of polo, where the old money "establishment" is sharing the field with the new money set. The sport of kings, as it is known, is popular with the young royals - Princes William and Harry both play - and has traditionally been perceived as a stuffy, blue-blood affair where having the right surname was paramount. Until now. These days, some of the bigger matches of the year are fast becoming trendy social events frequented by young, self-made city types who have no family connection to the sport.

But not only are more of them watching the game, they're playing it, too. According to some of the newer clubs, polo is becoming the sport of choice for a new generation of cashed up young professionals. "We have three or four inquiries a week," says Julie McIntosh, 35, co-owner of Riverlands Polo Club in Richmond, the only club in Sydney that teaches punters how to play via coaching clinics (and once they're proficient, places them in competitive teams). "Most of the people coming to us are young, single city people; lawyers, people in property and finance."

Sam Gairdner, 29, who owns the VicPolo Academy, a similar organisation based in Werribee, Victoria, reports the same trend. "We've had 50 students come through in the past five months and 20 of them had either never ridden a horse before or not since they were kids," he explains. "We're constantly getting calls from people wanting to know more, many of them in their 20s and 30s."

The influx of new blood has meant that the polo scene in Australia is quite different to that of even five years ago, which was closed to anyone who didn't have the right social connections. "There used to be two ways of getting into it," explains 30-year-old Dick Doolin, who worked full-time for Kerry Packer's private club, Ellerston, for three years before buying into Riverlands in 2004. "Through your family, which is how most people become involved - we're talking about established, wealthy families with properties. Or you could start off at a grooming level and work your way up, which is how I started."

Theoretically, there has been little stopping anyone from the "outside" playing polo - apart from money, that is. "It costs a lot to maintain a team," concedes Doolin. "Someone like Kerry Packer spends millions. Even on a basic level, you're looking at about $80,000 a year, which covers stabling the horses, hiring grooms and transporting the horses from tournament to tournament."

For an individual, he explains, "starting a team is totally inaccessible. That's why we started Riverlands - so an individual can come in and play. They pay per tournament or can lease horses per game. This way, you're looking at about $10,000 a year. It just allows people to ease themselves in to see if they like it before they commit to buying their own horses."

"It's a much more affordable sport than people give it credit for," adds Gairdner. "Most of the people coming through the academy are spending between $1000 and $15,000 a year. It wouldn't take you long to spend that kind of money on skiing or boating."

Back at Narrabeen, the crowd inside the Bollinger marquee swells as it starts to rain. A quick scan of the other tents reveals that Bollinger has the biggest celebrity turn-out - TV stars, fashion people and the odd politician. "I love the atmosphere," says entertainment reporter Angela Bishop, dressed in jeans and cowboy boots. "It's much less stuffy than the races." And, she says, at the polo, "I actually watch the game. How many times have I been to the Melbourne Cup and never seen a horse?"

If there is a "face" of the new polo, it's Janek Gazecki. The handsome 31-year-old lawyer started playing 18 months ago after going along as a spectator to watch a friend play. "After the match, he suggested I hop onto his horse and give it a go," recalls Gazecki, whose employer, the Sydney law firm Bartier Perry, sponsored his team last season. Like many of the new recruits, he'd never played before and hadn't ridden a horse since he was 14. "When I first started, I fell off the horse six times," he says. "I didn't mind. I was completely hooked and addicted. The adrenaline rush is like nothing else."

It's not just the actual game that appeals to the new breed of player; it's about spending time in the country where the polo scene is concentrated - Werribee in Victoria and the Hawkesbury Basin in NSW. "Playing polo becomes a way of life, a lifestyle," says Gazecki. "You're getting out of the city most weekends, away from the nightclubs and the bars. And when you're not playing, you're just relaxing. Going for walks or doing some fishing."

In Australia, the polo season consists of a series of weekend tournaments, which are often hosted by individual clubs. There is no ongoing tally of points over the season - each tournament is a competition in itself, at the end of which there is a winning team. Teams are put together by clubs and, at some of the more high-profile events, corporate sponsors may put together teams. Although there is no "polo league" as such, Australia still has professional players who are paid to play in tournaments by the person financing the team in the tournament.

The biggest events of the year - such as the Australia versus New Zealand International Polo Test at Windsor next month and the Melbourne Cup Polo Tournament in October - attract spectators in their thousands but, like horse racing, the season is dominated by small tournaments where just the players and their friends and loyalists attend.

Besides polo's increase in popularity, there has been another big change. With women accounting for about 30 to 50 per cent of the new people taking up the sport, polo is no longer a boys' club. Executive assistant Sarah Martin started playing two years ago, when she moved to Australia from the UK. "I didn't play in England," says the single 34-year-old. "It's still seen as an incredibly elite sport there. You need a phenomenal amount of money to be involved."

Playing polo is rejuvenating, she says. "It provides such a wonderful contrast to sitting at your desk five days a week, doing 12-hour days. You can blow the mental cobwebs away and have some fun." And the good-looking men who seem to frequent the scene don't hurt, either. "There's a few," she giggles.

The polo revival has been noted by the corporate world, who view the sport as the perfect setting for "corporate entertaining". Companies from the business end of town (law firms, accountancy firms, construction firms, etc) not only host marquees at big events, they also sponsor teams, usually featuring some of their employees. For some, the investments extend further: millionaire businessman Peter Higgins, founder of Mortgage Choice, established the Sydney Polo Club, while Andrew Roberts, whose father founded Multiplex, has his own polo field in NSW.

Luxury brands, too, are keen to align themselves with the sport. The Emirates airline sponsors the Emirates February International Polo Tournament in Werribee, a popular event that pulled a crowd of 3000. Earlier this year, a number of brands, including Country Road and Lexus, put together their own teams to play in The Age Portsea Polo Tournament. Belle Farquharson, communications manager at Country Road, says the fashion label was attracted to sponsor the sport because of "its increasing popularity among the urban fashion-conscious and young families" - the label's target market.

"Polo is definitely becoming something of a social event now," says VicPolo's Sam Gairdner. "The big tournaments are very much a champagne-and-strawberries kind of environment. You see a lot more people in their 20s and 30s coming along. I think they like getting dressed up and making a day of it."

On this blisteringly hot summer day, a group of pretty city girls have come along to watch one of their female friends play in a polo match in Windsor, NSW. They chat among themselves before being interrupted by an almighty crash. One of the players has hit a goal - and sent the ball screaming through the window of one of the girls' cars, a brand-new VW Golf. "Oh ... sorry about that," says the player, inspecting the damage after the game. In fact, he appears to be quite proud of his shot. And that, it seems, is what polo is all about. When someone hits a goal, any champagne chugging and socialising come screeching to a halt.

The rules of the game

When describing the action on the polo field, the phrase "fast and furious" is most apt. The aim of the game - which has been described as rugby on horseback - is to hit the ball (with mallets) between goal posts 7.3 metres wide. Teams consist of four players on horseback, who pound vigorously up and down the field. The skill lies

in being able to accurately pass the ball from player to player while being in command of an adrenaline-pumped horse. To keep up the pace, players change horses every seven minutes (known as a chukka) - and there can be up to six horse changes (for each player) each game.

© 2005 Sun Herald

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