Dawn of a new era

In an exclusive interview with Darlene Ricker, new owner Mark Bellissimo divulges his plans for the reimagined International Polo Club Palm Beach

Clockwise from opposite An aerial view of the current no 1 field at IPC; new owner Mark Bellissimo; April’s US Open final, at IPC, in which Orchard Hill defeated Dubai

When players and fans stream into Wellington in January for the 2017 high-goal season, it will look and feel like old times – however, behind the scenes, major changes will be afoot. At the end of the season, the venerable International Polo Club Palm Beach (IPC) will be transformed into a multi-use equestrian-sports centre that will incorporate but not be focused entirely on polo.

IPC was sold in April to Wellington Equestrian Partners (WEP). During the polo season, WEP produces two major competitions – the Winter Equestrian Festival, for hunters and jumpers, and the Adequan Global Dressage Festival – on its two other sites in the city. Those venues having now exceeded capacity, WEP purchased IPC.

To quell concerns about the future of high-goal polo at IPC, Mark Bellissimo, CEO and managing partner of WEP, has unequivocally stated that polo is there to stay. Proof of the veracity of his promise is the fact that WEP has formed an entity known as WEP Polo and the United States Polo Association (USPA) has a contract to hold high-goal tournaments at IPC for two further years. As the IPC sale completed after the end of the high-goal season, Bellissimo said he would like to meet with patrons and players in 2017 to work collaboratively on a plan that will grow participation, spectators and sponsorship. Indeed, he and his team have spent the summer exploring sponsor opportunities.

At present, IPC has eight polo fields. Sunday feature matches and tournament finals will still be held on the no 1 field, in front of the existing stadium. The no 2 field, which is currently used on Sundays for public parking, will be the site of the new stadium, together with the no 3 field. It will be situated between the sports complex and outback field, which, like field nos 4 and 5, will be retained for polo. The final two regulationsized fields, on an adjacent portion of IPC known as Isla Carroll, will also be retained for polo, said Bellissimo. That will leave a total of five such fields – not enough to accommodate the entire winter high-goal season. However, he intends to rent a few ancillary fields and make use of a partnership property located on South Road, near La Lechuza Caracas’s field and Orchard Hill Polo Farm, that can accommodate the construction of three more.

Bellissimo said no changes are planned for Isla Carroll, which is used for games when changes are imposed due to ground conditions

or conflicting schedules. The extensive stable complex, complete with a manager’s office and a long row of grooms’ apartments, is normally leased to a team for the entire high-goal season. British team Enigma Polo have leased it for 20-goal tournaments for the past two years, but don’t plan to return in 2017. Another barn complex on the outback field has long been leased to Orchard Hill for the high-goal season and will be again next year.

The Isla Carroll fields, situated across the main driveway from the stadium and the other fields, provides an important means of traffic control. Several smaller driveways wind through it, permitting an alternative means to feed cars from the city streets to IPC’s onsite parking. That has proved crucial on Sundays, which routinely see heavy spectator traffic.

Both the USPA and Bellissimo have stated independently that they plan to maintain a ‘long-term relationship’. Whether that means it will continue after their current contract expires in 2018, however, is anyone’s guess.

Wellington Equestrian Partners’ CEO, Mark Bellissimo, has unequivocally stated that polo is there to stay