More Than Just Horseplay

Polo Season Ends Sunday with Annual Chamber of Commerce Tournament

It is often referred to as the ‘Sport of Kings,’ the most ancient of games with a stick and ball that dates back to Persia more than 2,500 years ago. We know it as polo, and although the modern version is attributed to the British, it can be traced to Manipur, India, where it was called Pulu (ball). The only polo field left in Los Angeles is at Will Rogers State Historic Park. ‘Winston Churchill once said that a polo handicap is your passport to the world,’ said Felice Densa, general manager and executive director of the Will Rogers Polo Club, where the Hector Sustaita Memorial Tournament was held for the seventh time last weekend. ‘Everyone brings their own horses. They’re very expensive and extremely well-trained.’ Tournament play began back in May and last weekend’s event was named after the prominent heart surgeon who suffered a fatal heart attack while playing polo at Will Rogers in 2002. Most of his family, including his widow Clara and daughter Marina, attended. Densa, who began playing here in the early 1980s, retired two years ago. She has managed the Club for the past six years. Prior to that she served as its game coordinator. Started in 1953 by the legendary C.D. LeBlanc, Will Rogers is the 13th oldest polo club in the United States and hosts charity matches, fundraisers and private functions. It received 501(c)(3) classification last year. Polo matches consist of four to six chukkers (quarters), each seven-and-a- half minutes long. Regulation fields are 300 yards long by 160 yards wide (Will Rogers is slightly shorter and narrower) and have goal posts at either end, through which the ball must be hit (either on the ground or in the air) to score a goal. ‘A guy told me that polo is the most fun you can have with your clothes on’and he was right,’ said Lesa Slaughter, who played in Sunday morning’s practice match. ‘In this sport, women can play alongside men because the horse is the big equalizer. It’s not necessarily brute force. Part of it is horsemanship, part of it is the horse. A slow person on a fast horse can still win.’ Slaughter, who lives in Woodland Hills, used to be a Hunter jumper but has been playing polo for over eight years, ever since graduating from law school. ‘Once I tried it I was hooked,’ she said. ‘It’s fast, exhilarating, and the best thing is that you are part of a team. The positions are interchangeable and constantly overlapping.’ Teams consist of four players, designated by numbers. No. 1 is an offensive player, No. 2 is the offensive midfielder, No. 3 is the pivot (both offense and defense, typically the highest-rated player) and No. 4 is the defensive back. Each player is expected to mark his or her numerical opposite. So a No. 1 guards the other team’s No. 1, a No. 2 guards the other team’s No. 2 and so forth. One of Will Rogers’ best resident pros is Ernie Darquea, who not only plays but manages many of the players’ horses, which are transported by trailer from the San Fernando Valley or Moorpark to Will Rogers for games. Horses, like people, need years of practice. ‘You can start them at three years old getting used to the mallet and riding in traffic,’ said Darquea, who lives in Lake View Terrace. ‘Horses don’t like other horses coming at them. They don’t like bumping into each other. They’re used to a certain pecking order in a herd, and it can take a few years for them to get over those instincts.’ Training consists of trotting a horse for half an hour every day and riding it once or twice a week. Horses are replaced after every chukker, although some have enough stamina to last two. Darquea likened the rules of polo to those of driving: ‘The idea is to prevent collisions. Whoever has the right of way has the advantage and right of way is determined by the line of the ball. You can’t cut another rider off or come at them head-on or else it’s a foul.’ Players’ equipment includes helmets, gloves, leg guards, goggles (optional) and, of course, mallets, which range in length from 49 to 54 inches depending on a horse’s height. Like their riders, horses wear protective gear during games’mainly bandages or boots and tendon guards to protect their legs. Manes are shaved and tails are tied or ‘braided’ so mallets won’t get caught in them when swung. ‘It usually takes five to 10 minutes to get a horse ready,’ Darquea said while using tape to braid 12-year-old Dexter, an Argentine thoroughbred he bred and raised himself. Serving as referee for Sunday’s final was Will Rogers’ own Ardeshir Radpour, former captain of the USC men’s polo team and head coach since 2000. Before that, he spent five years in the uniform of Tommy Trojan, galloping Traveler (the team mascot) up and down the sidelines after every USC touchdown. Radpour played in Sunday’s consolation game, leading Malibu to victory over Beverly Hills. Atop the clubhouse roof calling the play-by-play action for all three matches, as he has for 15 years now, was sports announcer Al Epstein, who confessed he had next to no knowledge of the sport prior to landing the gig at Will Rogers: ‘I had a Ralph Lauren shirt in my closet’that’s about all I knew. When I showed up, I didn’t have a roster. I didn’t have anything. I just started describing the action, and I guess they liked me because I was hired.’ Epstein is also the official timekeeper (he keeps a digital clock next to the microphone) and scorekeeper, hanging hand-painted wooden tiles on a makeshift scoreboard whenever a goal is scored. Will Rogers Polo Club President Andrew Bossum rode for Beverly Hills in the consolation game and showed why he is a rated player. He has been playing at Will Rogers since 1992 and has ridden horses since the age of 4. ‘Our main objective is to raise money for charities, so I help organize that and try to attract players here,’ said Bossum, who lives in Bette Davis’ old house in Burbank, near the L.A. Equestrian Center. ‘It’s been a lot of fun, and the best part is, I still get to play.’ Hard at work in the saddling area below the field last Sunday was Manny Ramos, who watered down the horses to keep them cool on a hot afternoon. One of the mounts under his care was Bossum’s 10-year-old mare Mistress, who won several awards as best polo pony this summer at Will Rogers. The championship match pitted Darquea’s green-clad Santa Monica four against blue-attired Palisades, captained by another of Will Rogers’ highest-rated pros, Domingo Questel. Momentum swung back and fourth until Darquea scored in the waning seconds to tie the score. After Darquea and Questel traded goals in the shootout, Chuck Stanislawski made the decisive penalty shot from 40 yards out to win the game for Santa Monica. The 2009 season concludes this Sunday with the 17th annual Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce tournament. The consolation match starts at 10 a.m., followed by the championship match at noon. It is free to the public (except for a $12 parking fee) and Densa expects a good turnout. ‘Watching up close, you really appreciate the beauty and athleticism of the horses,’ she said. ‘They learn just like we do and the more they do it the better they get at stopping, starting, accelerating and turning. It’s a very exciting sport to watch and an even more exciting sport to play.’