An illustration from the poem "Guy u Chawgan" ("The Ball and the Polo-mallet"), an illuminated manuscript in the collection of the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, conveys the ancient Persian origins of polo as an ex… — An illustration from the poem "Guy u Chawgan" ("The Ball and the Polo-mallet"), an illuminated manuscript in the collection of the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, conveys the ancient Persian origins of polo as an exercise for the imperial cavalry.

The Other Open

August 26, 2018

If you are a reader of this blog, then you know that I am writing a series of novels called "The Games Men Play" and set in the worlds of swimming, tennis and football. The first two, "Water Music" and "The Penalty for Holding," are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The third will explore the equestrian worlds of show jumping, polo and Thoroughbred racing. It's a tale of bloodlines and bloodlust set amid rival equestrian families and told in part from the viewpoint of a colt that is trying to become the first since Whirlaway to win the Triple Crown and the Travers Stakes.

With this in mind, I thought you'd enjoy a repost from WAG Weekly, the e-newsletter that's part of my editing day job, about the other Open starting today in the New York metro area….

Nacho Figueras’ ‘High Season’

June 1, 2016

“Criterion” – the third planned book in my series “The Games Men Play” – is a tale of bloodlust and bloodlines set amid rival families in the equestrian world. So I was more than a little excited to see that Nacho Figueras – the polo star and Ralph Lauren spokesmodel – is presenting a series of romances, “The Polo Season,” written by Hudson Valley, N.Y. writer Jessica Whitman.

The first, “High Season” (Forever/Grand Central Publishing, $13.99, 351 pages) follows an upstate New York veterinarian as she threads her way among the 1-percenters of the winter equestrian circuit in Wellington, Fla. Will she find love with the dashing polo star who, too, has his challenges? Is there any doubt? ...

Days of heaven at the Greenwich Polo Club

June 17, 2015

Polo is a fiercely elegant game – as sleek and lovely as the ponies that thunder down the field, no wonder Ralph Lauren has been so inspired by it – but also rough and tumble.

We were reminded of that Sunday, June 14 as Airstream faced off against the new team sponsored by Shreve, Crump & Low at the Greenwich Polo Club in the town’s verdant backcountry on a perfectly idyllic late-spring day. There were quite a few penalties – and more than one or two balls out of bounds – as Airstream prevailed 10-9 in a Monty Waterbury Cup match that went down to the last few minutes of the last chukker (period). They don’t call it “horse hockey” for nothing.

If you’ve never been to a match, it’s quite something. The teams enter from opposite sides of the field – which is nine times the size of a gridiron – and then face the grandstand as if to say, “We who are about to entertain salute you.” ...

Polo and the essence of modernism

September 10, 2014

It was a sparkling climax to the season at the Greenwich Polo Club Sunday, Sept. 7 as Royal Salute held off a surging Casablanca 10-8 in a taut match for the Royal Salute Cup.

The match, spectators were told, featured the highest quality polo in the Northern Hemisphere, with Facundo Pieres, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, the legendary Martin Aguerre and Peter Brant, the Greenwich club’s founder, anchoring the team for Royal Salute, the Scotch whisky company, while Nick Manifold, who oversees the club, and 9-goaler Hilario Ulloa (10 is the highest ranking) doing the honors for Casablanca, a polo-gear company that has a store on tony Greenwich Avenue.

If you’ve never seen this ancient sport, which dates from the Persian Empire, then you’re missing something. Polo is fast, exciting and, I suspect, more than a little bit dangerous. Just to see the horses thunder down the green expanse (10 football fields), the riders swinging their mallets as they sometimes mix it up – nose to nose and haunch to haunch – is, well, thrilling.

And did I mention sexy? Polo players are among the most attractive, masculine men in the world. ...

Greenwich Polo Club gallops into another season

May 31, 2014

There’s no Prince Harry to spice up the Greenwich Polo Club this year, but that doesn’t mean fans aren’t in for an exciting season.

Things get off to a rollicking start Sunday, June 1 with the White Birch home team – named after club founder Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm and White Birch Paper – in action against CT Energia. The home team will be led by Argentina’s Mariano Aguerre, considered one of the all-time greats, and his fleet countryman Hilario Ulloa. In April, the two teamed to help Alegria take the U.S. Open title.

The polo club is set in Greenwich’s verdant, undulating backcountry. Recently, I had a chance to chat there about the season with Australia’s Nick Manifold, who’ll be playing No. 2, an offensive position, for CT Energia Sunday. What a treat it was to sit out in the grandstand on a picture-perfect spring day, the cottony cumulus clouds so ripe and low that they seemed ready to touch the Jim Dine sculpture (think a huge, modern “Winged Victory”) that stands guard across the field. As the staff put the finishing touches on the immaculately manicured expanse and added patrons’ nameplates to the box seats, Nick gave this relative newbie a polo primer, something I was extremely grateful for as my one experience with the game had been last May’s Sentebale charity match starring Prince Harry and Nacho Figueras that was an otherworldly media event. (Polo does, however, figure in “Criterion,” the third novel in my “The Games Men Play” series, the story of a star-crossed equestrian family told in part from the viewpoint of a horse trying to win the Triple Crown.)