Cartier International Polo | Polo’s Drink-riders Told To Step Away From The Horse
Polo is moving to curb its party reputation by bringing breathalysers to the side of its well-manicured pitches.
Arguably the poshest sport in Britain, played by aristocrats hungry for an adrenalin rush and hedge fund managers in search of social status, polo has become only the second equestrian pursuit after racing to bring in random alcohol testing.
The game’s regulatory body, the Hurlingham Polo Association, hopes that the ban will promote professionalism and help dispel its elitist image. Failing a breath test would not earn an “over-lunched” player a ban, it says, but they would be stood down from the match. And its drink-ride limit is tough, set at half the level of the drink-drive limit. Many in the game welcomed the move, pointing out that a “good lunch” was never going to improve performance or safety.
“It’s always been in our regulations that alcohol and drugs aren’t acceptable but now we have the machines which we didn’t have before and a doctor or official on hand to use them,” said the HPA’s chief executive, David Woodd.
The sport did not have “a great problem with drinkers”, he said, adding: “At the country club I wouldn’t argue that there are players who will have a decent lunch and play afterwards. But at the top end of the sport, most of them won’t even eat, never mind drink, before they play.”
Polo is growing in popularity. The number of clubs in Britain has more than doubled in the past 10 years, from 32 to 69, and plans were revealed last week for three new England youth teams to keep up with the number of children participating the sport.
But polo’s efforts to temper its elite image are always going to be hindered by the costs involved in taking part. Jack Kidd, a blue-blooded polo player and the brother of the model Jodie, has said the only way to quit is death or bankruptcy. Players can need more than one horse per game, and the costs of keeping, training and transporting them, as well as vets’ fees, are huge.
And money can buy you success, or at least a place in the top teams. The handicap system means the greenest novice can be playing alongside a professional, and a team patron plays alongside his team.
“Ultimately, for luxury brands, it is polo’s clientele that is appealing,” Arnaud Bamberger, managing director of Cartier, which has hosted the annual Cartier International Polo day for past 25 years, has said. “Polo attracts an intelligent, elegant and, of course, wealthy crowd,” he says.
According to the market research group Ledbury, roughly 25,000 people in the UK earning more than 100,000 will attend a polo event in a year.
But Woodd says: “There is far less snobbery than there might have been some years ago. Many of the clubs are trying to be commercial and are really looking for good people to learn to play, and it’s all becoming much more accessible.”
Just stay away from the champagne.
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