INDIAN RIVE COUNTY — Hundreds of brightly-clad spectators, looking as if in a photo shoot for a Ralph Lauren ad, sipped champagne, nibbled on delicacies, and marveled at the skill of internationally recognized polo players during the Windsor Charity Polo Cup, a biennial event at the place which prides itself on being a private sporting club community located on the barrier island.
At front-and-center watching the players smacking a hard plastic ball with their mallets at lightening speed atop their ponies, was Windsor founder and avid polo player Galen Weston, next to his wife, The Hon. Hilary M. Weston, on a crystal-clear Saturday last weekend.
Nostalgic about Windsor and its polo roots, Galen Weston recalled the days of galloping along the not-yet developed beachfront at today’s Windsor with riding friends, and the time when the Prince of Wales played in a polo match on its pristine field. ”We’ve been highly involved in polo,” he said. “I have memories of the greatest of the great here. The very best come from different parts of the world. People are drawn to a very rich polo culture here.”
Indeed, Windsor and its strong roots in polo were celebrated during the event with honorary co-chairs Mrs. Weston, co-founder and Creative Director of Windsor, and Salvatore Ferragamo, grandson of the esteemed Italian footwear designer and leader of his family’s expanding wine business. The 2014 event co-chairs were Windsor members Kjestine Bijur and Susan Knott.
Recognized as the premier high goal charity polo match of the season, the 2014 event featured a roster of top-level international polo players including Mike Azzaro, Memo Gracida, Ferragamo, Malcolm Borwick, Luis Escobar, Carolos Gracida and celebrity television personality John Walsh.
About 600 guests enjoyed an elegant tented field-side champagne luncheon of beef tenderloin, Maine lobster and roasted corn succotash trailed by passion fruit tart with toasted coconut while others enjoyed a picnic in the festive field-side tailgating area.
As people shivered in other parts of the country, recovering from the latest of winter storms, those in Vero Beach enjoyed a pristine mid-70’s degree day under a bright blue sky, elegantly dressed and watching world class polo players including the Gracida brothers. Carolos Gracida is the only player in the history of the sport to have won Polo’s Grand Slam -the U.S., Argentine and British Opens – in the same year, and he has done this three times.
His brother, Memo, also a legend in polo, has won the U.S. Open 17 times, almost double the number of his nearest rival.
But it was not purely the players that deserved credit for high level performance during last weekend’s match, as match director Max Secunda, pointed out.
“When you dedicate your life to polo, you have an amazing appreciation for the horses. It is a union between horse and man. It’s harmony. It’s electrifying when you have a horse going 40 mph, and then suddenly stops and turns.”
Players use 6 to 7 ponies a match, and can rotate them as quickly every 3 1/2 minutes. A match lasts about an hour and a half.
Ferragamo, emerging from lunch to change for the highly anticipated match, described the sport as “very exciting.”
“There are lots of different elements with polo,” he explained. “It’s like playing golf in an earthquake.”
“It’s a tough sport, with lots of bouncing in the saddle.”
Excited to thrust himself into the spirited competition, he said, the value of this particular event extended beyond sport. “This is a top level, quality event with a charity component that’s important.”
Proceeds from this year’s event benefitted the Rett Syndrome Research Trust and Indian River County School District: “Summer Literacy on the Lagoon.”
Event co-chairs Kjestine Bijur and Susan Knott were emotionally linked to the causes.
Bijur highlighted the goal of the Moonshot Moment steered by the Learning Alliance. The goal is to have 90 percent of the 3rd graders in Indian River County reading at grade level by 2018.
Admiring the stylistic polo playing out on the field, Knott said: “It’s the action, balance and history of the sport that is a huge draw.”
For her, the aura and beauty of it all extended far beyond the adept polo players and ponies on the field. Rather, it was the generous support given in part to Rett Syndrome Research Trust. Her granddaughter, Alison, suffers from the disorder that afflicts more than 350,000 girls and women. Girls with Rett develop normally for the first 12 to 18 months of life. Then a regression occurs during which they lose their ability to speak and walk.
“A gathering like this raises awareness and brings us hope for funding further research,” Knott said.
Helping raise the awareness through their participation in the charity polo cup was Borwick, who has flown all around the globe competing in the most recognized tournaments; Azzaro, a six time winner of the U.S. Open and named MVP in the 2012 games who was elected to the Museum of Polo’s Hall of Fame and the National Museum of Polo; and Escobar who has been playing professionally since he was a teenager, and runs a polo school and a vacation program at the Santa Clara Polo Club in Palm Beach.
Also, Ferragamo, a highly regarded polo player; and Walsh, an American player who took up the sport later in life.
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team’s goal using a long-handled mallet. The traditional sport of polo is played at speed on a large grass field up to 300 yards long by 160 yards wide, and each polo team consists of four riders and their mounts. Field polo is played with a solid plastic ball, which has replaced the wooden ball in much of the sport.
Special Equestrians of the Treasure Coast did a demonstration. And with polo ponies galloping in the background, Lou Linden, president of the Space Coast Region of Porsche Club of America, stood in an area of the field where 42 Porsches dating back to 1954 were parked. Fourteen of the cars were owned by Vero Beach residents.
“Porsches and polo … It’s a great pairing,” he mused. “These are the finest of the fine.”
