![Spectators at Portsea can see a 'pretty serious exhibition' match played on a full-size field.](/content/dam/images/g/t/e/d/q/f/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gtcil3.png/1482885804718.jpg)
"Now a polo-pony is like a poet," Rudyard Kipling wrote in his brilliant 1936 short story The Maltese Cat. "If he is born with a love for the game he can be made."
The game might date to the sixth century BC in Persia and have gained wide popularity in India and Pakistan during the heyday of the British Empire, but the poetry of polo has also long captivated Australian hearts.
Albeit these days it's more urban or city polo, as it's been dubbed, that pulls the big crowds, replacing the rough and ready Australian-style bush polo immortalised by Banjo Paterson in poems such as The Geebung Polo Club (1893), about a fictional club whose style of playing was "irregular and rash – They had mighty little science, but a mighty lot of dash".
Polo today might be more about the marquees, the city or water views, the brand of champagne and the VIP passes but, rest assured, the "dash" has endured.
![Big crowds take in the fast action at Polo by the Sea, Palm Beach.](/content/dam/images/g/t/e/d/r/1/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1482129017940.jpg)
A number of fast-paced exhibition games will be held this summer, including Polo by the Sea at Palm Beach, north of Sydney, Alfa Romeo Polo at Portsea in Victoria, and Melbourne's first beach event, Kennedy Twilight Beach Polo, in St Kilda.
But first comes the inaugural Pacific Fair Magic Millions Polo on January 8 on the Gold Coast, the latest urban match to join the Australian polo calendar.
"We often liken the city exhibition matches to the shorter, faster-paced Twenty20 cricket," says seven-goal player Rob Archibald from prime polo pony country, the Hunter Valley in NSW, who will play in the Magic Millions tournament. "There's more energy and you're closer to the action."
Three years in the planning
Magic Millions co-owner and Harvey Norman chief executive Katie Page-Harvey started talking to Archibald about staging a polo day in conjunction with the Magic Millions horse sale and race day more than three years ago.
![Portsea Polo Ground will attract big names such as Australian polo team captain and six-goal player Glen Gilmore in January.](/content/dam/images/g/t/e/d/l/a/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1482128828174.jpg)
"We wanted the very best people involved so it's taken a while to get it off the ground," she says. "Now it's about to come to fruition, everyone's so excited. It's the perfect start to the Magic Millions week."
You can pretty much see a game of polo every weekend somewhere in Australia, says Australian polo team captain and six-goal player Glen Gilmore, who will saddle up for the Alfa Romeo Polo tournament.
"I think it's fair to say now that polo is the new racing," he quips, adding some of Victoria's most serious polo is played during Melbourne's Spring Racing Carnival.
Gilmore manages the Packer family's historic estate Ellerston in Scone, which hosts two high-goal tournaments each year around March, then again around October, in the key polo seasons of spring and autumn.
![Polo is considered by some to be the 'new racing' as it makes its presence felt in more urban areas.](/content/dam/images/g/t/e/d/r/n/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1482129032612.jpg)
But the biggest highlight on the Australian event program is likely to be the Polo World Cup, to be held at Richmond, on Sydney's north-western outskirts, from October 21 to 29. Governed by the Federation of International Polo, it will be the 11th Polo World Cup, an event held only every three years. Eight international teams will compete for the title, including the current world champions, Chile.
The Sydney Polo Club, owned by Mortgage Choice co-founder Peter Higgins and his wife, Rebecca, will play host.
Drawing big names
While smaller in scale, the exhibition matches have no trouble attracting big names. The Queen's granddaughter, Zara Tindall, was due to play in the Magic Millions tournament but recently withdrew from competing after announcing she's pregnant with her second baby. But she will be there with her husband, Mike Tindall, and their toddler, Mia, helping stomp divots (stamp down the torn-up turf at half time).
![Rob Archibald and his wife, Francesca Cumani, will play on rival teams at the Magic MIllions contest.](/content/dam/images/g/t/e/d/l/b/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1482182808922.jpg)
In the main game, Rob Archibald will play against his talented wife, Francesca Cumani (accomplished rider, Magic Millions spokeswoman and racing commentator for ITV in Britain and Channel 7 in Australia). Archibald's brother Jack will also be swinging the mallet, as will Argentinian superstar Alejandro Novillo Astrada.
"During December and January, most Australian players are taking a break from competition to train their younger horses," says Archibald. "These exhibition-style games are great to get the younger horses out and about while giving spectators the opportunity to watch great polo in a social context.
"At the Magic Millions tournament, you'll also see a lot of ex-racehorses out competing on the polo field."
Archibald and Cumani spend up to half the year in Britain, where Archibald has played alongside Prince Harry. He's also competed several times in the ultra high-level Queen's Cup and British Gold Cup.
![Natalie Decorte and husband Janek Gazecki, who founded urban polo, add to the glamour at Palm Beach.](/content/dam/images/g/t/e/d/q/u/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1482129014972.jpg)
In Victoria, Gilmore is preparing for Portsea, a "pretty serious exhibition" match played on a full-size field. "A lot of the exhibition matches now are three players per side doing four chukkas on a three-quarter-sized field," he says. "But Portsea is actually the full four players for six chukkas and it's pretty competitive.
"What's so special about Portsea is the spectacular view – and the fact you have so much room," he says. " Also, I don't know what's in the water down here, but I've never seen such a great-looking bunch of people in my life."
Magic Millions raceday
One week after the inaugural Pacific Fair Magic Millions Polo tournament wraps up, all eyes – as well as binoculars, champagne goblets and fluttering maxi dresses – will shift to the nearby Gold Coast Turf Club for the nation's richest day of racing, on Saturday, January 14.
With the Jeep Magic Millions Raceday prizemoney skyrocketing to $10 million for the first time last year, it's not surprising that 2017 has delivered a record number of first entries, including 789 entries for the feature race, the 2YO Classic.
Four-time winner of the race, Sydney trainer Gai Waterhouse, has lodged 53 entries alone.
Only horses sold through Magic Millions (known as Magic Millions graduates) are eligible to enter the nine-race program, with more than seven races worth $1 million or more. The 2YO Classic and the 3YO Guineas pay out $2 million each.
When it comes to big prizemoney on the Gold Coast, it also helps to be female. Now in its fifth year, the Racing Women's Bonus will again apply to the 2YO Classic, paying out a share of $500,000 to the connections of the first four "all-female owned or leased horses" past the post.
![You can pretty much see a game of polo every weekend somewhere in Australia.](/content/dam/images/g/t/e/d/w/y/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1482129197368.jpg)
Almost 400 first entries have been lodged for the 3YO Guineas; the dominant Waterhouse once again leads the pack with 48 three-year-old horses including her 2015 Golden Slipper winner Vancouver, which cost $185,000 as a yearling.
Meanwhile, strong contenders for the 2YO Classic are Chauffer, the $1.6 million 2016 Magic Millions sale-topping colt owned by Damion Flower, and promising filly Debonairly, trained by Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
NEED TO KNOW
Pacific Fair Magic Millions Polo
- Where Doug Jennings Park in The Spit on the Gold Coast.
- When January 8.
Alfa Romeo Portsea Polo
- Where Portsea Polo Ground, Point Nepean National Park.
- When January 14.
Polo by the Sea Palm Beach
- Where Palm Beach Polo Club, Sydney.
- When January 14.
Kennedy Twilight Beach Polo
- Where West Beach, St Kilda.
- When February 17 from 5pm.
Polo World Cup
- Where Sydney Polo Club, 100 Ridges Lane, Richmond, Sydney.
- When October 21 to 29.