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Comment Global view With Herbert Spencer, who has been following polo around the world for 40 years


Player power – 25 per cent of the game?


much weight, if any, did they give to the ponies a player was riding in relation to the player’s athletic ability and skills?


W


It was Henry L Herbert, first president of the Polo Association of America (1890, later US Polo Association), who invented the handicapping system in 1888. Handicapping in the US became official two years later, with England and Argentina adopting the American system in 1911.


No one knows just what the early governors of the game had in mind in establishing criteria for comparing the performance of players in assigning handicaps. I suspect, however, that the handicappers of 100 years ago paid more attention to players’ relative skills than to the quality of their ponies. Not so today, of course, when everyone says the success of a player is based as much as 75 per cent or more on the ponies he plays. This leads us to the logical assumption that the individual talents of a player as a sportsman and athlete account for as little as a quarter of his worth to the teams on which he plays. That seems strangely dismissive of the skills that the player may have spent years developing; for some professional players, many years of hard slog. The way today’s handicappers see it, natural and acquired athleticism and skills count for less than a player’s pony power, whether the player is riding his own horses or those of a patron who, at the top end of the sport, can afford to spend a small fortune building up a top string. There are some exceptions to the


24 July 2010 www.polotimes.co.uk


Last year the AAP ran a pony pool of sorts for its high- goal international series, the Copa de las Naciones, with teams swapping strings between one game and the next





pool for its next World Cup. Argentina has been named as the host country for the final stages of the championships, likely to be held in 2012.


Do today’s


handicappers put disproportionate weight on pony power compared to a player’s talents?


to bring their own ponies. So the FIP established a pony pool system. The World Cup host country provides a pool of medium-goal ponies of roughly comparable quality from which teams draw their mounts by lots. This has the effect of creating a level playing field on which individual player talent and teamwork are the deciding factors.


Last year the Argentine Polo Association ran a pony pool of sorts for its high-goal international series, the Copa de las Naciones, with the four


Currently the Argentines are talking about a budget of up to US$550,000 (£380,000) for mounts for 10 teams, including the “rental” of some 300 ponies. In past World Cups, however, host countries such as Mexico, France, Australia and the USA have managed to obtain, largely if not entirely, the free loan of ponies from generous members of their respective polo communities. Argentina has a greater supply of suitable mounts for medium-goal polo than any other country in the world. It would appear, however, that the generosity of Argentine players is in rather shorter supply if they insist on being paid for providing ponies for the visitors. F


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hen the Americans first devised polo’s handicapping system well over a century ago, how


disproportionate weight generally given to pony power over player talent. When the Federation of International Polo (FIP) first inaugurated its 14-goal World Championships for the World Cup in 1987, it took the pragmatic view that it would be prohibitively expensive for national teams from all over the world


teams swapping pony strings between one game and the next to equalise pony power. Perhaps a pooled pony system should be adopted for all internationals.


IS GENEROSITY IN SHORT SUPPLY? What got me to thinking about the handicapping system this month were some concerns over FIP’s pony





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