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the need for speed Javier Tanoira’s insightful essay on Argentinean polo examines the game’s dwindling speed as the pressure to win increases, finds Melanie Vere Nicoll In an insightful and thought-provoking essay, Javier Tanoira examines polo in Argentina and how it has changed in the 140 years since the rules were first recorded. Drawing on meetings with current and former players, referees, management, spectators, journalists, horse breeders and veterinarians, Reflecting on Polo in Argentina is an informed and objective commentary of the sport. He pulls no punches, however, when he comments in his preface: ‘In January 2009 I was meditating on the high-goal polo season that had just come to a close and I realised that polo was not only changing, but that it was heading towards something that I definitely did not
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like. I had attended most of the Triple Crown matches for one reason or another, and I couldn’t remember having watched a single game that I could consider entertaining. The Open final between La Dolfina and Ellerstina was the cherry on the cake: it was a cut-up, slow game, fouls galore, where the only thing worth watching was the final outcome in the supplementary chukka. I became aware that players found that they were more efficient when forcing a slow game in which being in possession of the ball and not passing it was key, and by scoring through penalties.’ Tanoira first analyses the existing circumstances of Argentinian high-goal
polo, which he defines as the game that to date is played only in Argentina between the months of September and December. It is made up of three main tournaments: the Tortugas Open, the Hurlingham Open and the Argentine Open – together known as the Triple Crown. These tournaments are unique in the world, he says, because they are open by definition, meaning there is no handicap limit and almost no patrons. Further narrowing his definition, Tanoira describes the three basic characteristics needed by a high-goal player: anticipation, horsemanship and skill at handling the ball. He underlines the close relationship between these variables
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