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Making the Team
This year the seven teams playing at BPC will include the White Birch team, led by Peter Brant, one of BPC's founders and once the highest-rated amateur player in the U.S.; the Palm Beach team, led by Glen Straub; and the La Leehuza Caracas team, led by Victor Vargas. The four-person teams are generally composed of talented freelancers, most ot them Argentine, but also include the Canadian brothers Todd and David Offen, Australian Nick Manifold (who has heen romantically linked to equestrienne Kelly Klein), and local favorites Adam Lindemann and Country Imports dealer Michael Caruso. Players range widely both in age and skill level, with some BPC competitors ranked as ten-goal players, the highest, rarest level.
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Sixty to 70 percent of players are rated as five-goal players ot less - meaning that these local summer matches offer spectators some of the worlds best polo. Whether enthusiastic local amateurs, such as Caruso, or highly-rated professionals, polo players are paid by the team organizer, known as a patron, who often (as is the ease with Caruso and Hirsch) also plays on the team. (Imagine George Steinbrenner stepping up to home plate!)
The game pits two four-person teams against each other, with the object being to score as many goals as possible through the posts that sit eight yards apart at the end of the 300-yard field. Two umpires on horseback and one on the sidelines watch the action, and penalties are frquently called, often for infractions of right of way, a move that can prove dangerous or even fatal to horse and rider.
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Unique to polo, each patron typically expects to personally ante up $1 million or so to cover the costs, which include stabling and feeding the team's many ponies, housing and feeding players, transporting the horses, and yaying veterinaring fees, Each player needs six to eight animals apiece, as the game involves six chukkers -- or 17-minute periods--with a fresh pony needed for each one. The ponies, typically 14 to 15 hands high (versus 15 to 18 for a regular horse), are usually mares chosen for their lighter bone structure. Most are bred in Argentina.
Founding Fathers
The BPC was founded by Hirsch and Brant, both passionate and enthusiastic players, and Jordan, another long-time player who started and organized the polo team at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. Relying on Jordan's expertise, the three turned what was once a muddy potato field full of cows (belonging to David Walentas) into the lush green enclave that is now home to the summer's events. The BPC was born, says Jordan, from the combination of "my knowledge, Peter's financing, and Neil's enthusiasm."
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