Great World Polo Blog

A new 500 acre equestrian development is in the works for Wellington, Florida according to the Palm Beach Daily News. It is being planned around the Winter Equestrian Festival by a group of Wellington residents that includes Gene Mische, of Stadium Jumping, Inc.

The proposed development will have "condos, equestrian homes, an RV village, studio-type grooms' quarters, 2,000 permanent stalls, a hotel/spa, medical facility, restaurants and shopping."

A recently announced restaurant -- a spin off of the famous Tavern on the Green in New York -- will eventually be the anchor of a retail shopping area in the new development. Initially, the restaurant will be located in what has been known as Gallipette restaurant, which overlooks the International Arena at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club.

The new restaurant opens in November, just in time for the National Horse Show and POLO SEASON.

Thank God the Royals are still playing polo. Otherwise, our sport would get zero publicity.

Prince Harry played yesterday in Berkshire, England. The match was a fundraiser for Aids orphans in Africa and reportedly raised £30,000.

But the real news, according to MonstorsandCritics.com, was Prince Harry's girlfriend.

"South African beauty, Chelsy Davy, was wearing a tight white halter-neck top and a layered floral skirt, as she watched her royal boyfriend play in a charity game."

Whatever.

If you think you know how to party, you ain't seen nothin' 'til you been to Brunei. The tiny oil-rich country on Borneo island is gearing up for its biggest shindig in years, marking Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's 60th birthday on July 15th. The party starts this weekend and goes pretty much nonstop until the 15th.

According to the Associated Press, Hassanal can be a tad extravagant.

"He has a vast collection of Rolls-Royces and Ferraris, along [with] personal planes. While playing polo with Britain's Prince Charles, the sultan once had his polo [boots] delivered --by helicopter-- to the palace field." (AP)

But then, who hasn't?

The Kentucky Horse Park Foundation is seeking funds to prepare for the Alltech FEI Games Kentucky 2010. Despite having built a new all-weather show facility, the horse park is "far from ready" for the event according to a KHP Foundation press release.

Alltech kicked in $10 million for the title sponsorship. If you'd like to help out, call the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation office at 859-255-5727.

"With Ten days left for the annual polo match between arch rivals Chitral and Gilgit at the Shandur festival, 'Polotics' has over taken politics in Chitral. In reply to a press conference by the president polo association two days back, a polo player Izhar Ali addressed a press conference Monday accompanied by the President district sports committee and Nazim UC 2 Riaz Ahmad, Nazim UC1 Shamsher Khan and a large number of supporters. Azhar Ali extended support for the team constituted by the district administration thereby rejecting the team constituted by the president polo association and Tehsil Nazim Mastuj, Shahzada Sikander Ul Mulk accusing such team of continuously losing the game for the last many years. Speakers stressed the need for team composition differences to be sorted out and present a unified team against Gilgit." (Taj Muhammad Figar) http://www.chitralnews.com

I couldn't agree more!

The Las Colinas Polo Club in Dallas got some ink in our local newspaper last week. The second leg of the The Triple Crown of Polo was there this weekend. The three-part event started here at Sarasota Polo Club in March and was broadcast by ESPN2.

Today's match will be televised on September 17, 2006. For more info, go to the TCP website.

Since, Yasmin and I are stuck in Florida this summer, I asked Robin Uhilien if I could use his new arena at the Sarasota Polo Club (SPC) to teach some polo. He and club manager Maggie Mitchell were kind enough to offer me the arena and some stalls for my horses.

We moved our horses from our property on Verna Road to barn "B" at the Sarasota Polo Club (SPC) this week. I now get to feed my own horses since I live so close to the club. What a treat!

Polo lessons will start on Saturday, July 8th. We'll be playing at 7:30 A.M. to beat the heat.

The new arena at SPC is nice. I'm looking forward to using it!