RELATIVE VALUE
Playing in his 30th Argentine Open – a game featuring three generations of his illustrious family – Eduardo Heguy rode into the history books, explains Darlene Ricker
He may be 49 years old, but Eduardo Heguy is not going to retire his mallet any time soon. Two months ago, he played a record-setting 30th consecutive Argentine Open – a feat never before accomplished. He comes from a line of top players with careers longer than the Trans-Siberian Highway. ‘My father is 74 and still plays,’ says Eduardo, who continues to ride daily himself. He recently vowed to ‘keep playing until I can’t get on a horse and ride’. Nonetheless, as he admits, ‘playing’s one thing and competing’s another’. He stretches and works out more now. ‘When I was younger, I used to just play tennis, football, golf…and that was my training for polo,’ he said. ‘But now I have to go to the gym and I have a personal trainer. If you want to
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compete with the kids, you simply have to be on a higher level.’ However, age, he says, is just a number. ‘It’s the way you feel that matters. If you’ve been lucky not to sustain serious injuries and your genes are good, you have an advantage. If you take care of yourself, you can play until you’re over 40. And that’s all the motivation you need. I think that’s what’s going to happen with Adolfito [Cambiaso]. If you’re passionate about what you’re doing, you can keep doing it for a long, long time.’ His family polo dynasty began a century ago, when Bautista Heguy, a French-Basque immigrant, moved to Argentina and bought land 600km west of Buenos Aires. He won his first Argentine Open in 1958, playing for
Coronel Suárez-Los Indios with his son Horacio Antonio, an agronomist. Soon, Horacio and his brother Alberto Pedro, a vet, dominated the Argentine Open, winning 19 and 17 times respectively. Known as the Heguy Express because of their unrelenting speed, they were heralded as the world’s best polo players. In 1966, Prince Philip quipped that he would trade the Falkland Islands to Argentina in exchange for the brothers. Over the years, the Heguys turned polo into a profitable business, allowing their heirs to concentrate solely on enjoying the sport and honing their skills. The strategy paid off in spades. The family has produced no fewer than nine 10-goal players, with Heguys playing in the Argentine Open for the past 58 years.
hurlinghampolo.com
03/02/2016 14:38
