The new year period is usually when we reflect on the past twelve months and look ahead. It is a little more poignant this year as 2019 is the end of a decade.
This year has seen a major shift in my business focus as Zack’s Tack created KL Academy of Polo. Bringing eight ponies and taking over the riding school of the Royal Selangor Polo Club has been a major undertaking. Starting a new business takes a lot of energy and creates a lot of stresses. It has been a tough year in this regard but I am relishing the challenge of running a riding school again. The day to day of a riding school is always interesting – we meet so many different people!
KL Academy of Polo will grow this year, both as a riding and polo school. ISKL has started a series of riding classes with us and 2020 will see their first polo lessons. It is exciting times for this super new business. It’s growing very quickly and sometime I’ve had to get more involved. From sitting behind a desk, I am now sitting on more horses – I’ve started schooling the horses that need it. We hope to get some new horses for the riding school and entice more riders into polo.
It’s not all about lessons and chukkas. KL Academy of Polo aims to do more than that. We hope to open the polo and equestrian worlds to our clients.
Shandur was a highlight this year. It was one of my bucket list things to do, and it did not disappoint. To do it with such dear friends was a real bonus but as an adventure tour, it is the best I have ever been on. Qubilai Alam, Princess Zainab and their friends took us on a journey of a lifetime. The tour was much more than just an experience of freestyle mountain polo. Of course, we enjoyed the big match, but the tour was much more than that. It was Pakistan at its spectacular best.
That Zack’s Tack and KL Academy of Polo was able to bring this to the market was an achievement in itself that had taken five years to achieve. We are looking to build on it and improve on the Royal Tour of Chitral and Shandur Polo Festival in 2020.
Zack’s Tack had a decent year. We built on the success of our Zack’s Tack Technical Polo Jeans with silicone grip strips by adding a new charcoal colour to the white and blue denim range. ZT also introduced the MacWet riding and polo gloves, and the cost effective ZT Silicon Gloves. 2020 will see an introduction of more items made in Malaysia, incorporating Malaysian designs and materials. Look out for our Batik Helmet Bags that will make its introduction in January.
From the Malaysian perspective, the SEA Games was a wonderful tournament. Winning the A division, against all odds, showed that Malaysia is top of the region. Malaysia has never lost a SEA Games. We treated the 2-goal B division as development class. While the other countries played their best players, we played our youngest. A team with an average age of 19 went to the final and won a silver medal, beating even the hosts on horses borrowed from them!
For me as a Federation of International Polo official, the SEA Games was a long 19 days to be away. The polo was good and I believe the FIP team went a long way in making a level playing field for all. The SEA Games was disappointing for the lack of social events, which could have gone a long way in cementing the foundations of our South East Asian polo family.
Polo at home had its highlights. Playing in the RSPC League was very good, even if I did get knocked over and concussed. This low goal league filled a gap in the market. Having Kelantan play in it was very good to have. It has been quite a while since we have seen new teams.
The suspension of the Malaysian legs of the RMPA International League in respect of the passing of RMPA’s patron HRH Sultan Ahmad Shah left a hole in the season. RSPC stepped up once again and filled it with the RSPC Triple Crown. This proved to be a game changer, bringing a few new Malaysian players to this level.
Dato’ Mohamed Moiz’s La Familia had won both the Thai Polo Open and Thai Polo Masters at the start of the year. Imran Moiz, Dato’ Mohamed’s son, became the first 13-year-old to win a 14-goal RMPA International League tournament.
The family’s success continued in the RSPC League. His wife, Datin Nurul, combined forces with Jennifer Too, Nacho Ithurburu and Matias Vial to form La Familia Windhorse. They won the RSPC Masters and RSPC Open, winning the overall 8-goal RSPC Triple Crown. I have been an advocate of ladies in polo, so I was very happy to see this team, playing with two lady patrons, win the RSPC League.
Having started the Malaysian Ladies Polo Championships back in 2012, I was disappointed that the Pink Polo was hazed out in October, but I look forward to its return in April 2020.
Actually, I shall miss the first couple of days of the Pink Polo as I shall be in Chinese Taipei to course design the AEF Young Rider Finals. 2020 is looking to be a fun year, as in addition to Chinese Taipei, course designing will take me to Australia, China, Singapore and possibly Thailand.
Of my goals from 2019, I managed a few. Winston, the horse I bred, was a delight to play. I am looking forward to playing him in some tournaments this year, and starting Brookster into polo as well.
I will be hitting 60 in April (I feel 30 with 2x the experience) but I hope to have my best polo season of the last few years this year. My aim is to get back into the A Division. Having had my handicap dropped from 1 to 0, I have a really good chance!
The calendar for 2020 is packed with great tournaments. I’m looking forward to a stellar polo year.
To help me achieve that, I have gone into pre-season overdrive, spin cycling and doing some running again too! I’ll be trying out a keto diet, while remaining Pescatarian for most of the year.
On a personal note, I found that some friends have moved on. C’est la vie. As I get older, I realise I have lived my life much to my St Andrew’s school motto, ‘Up and On’. In my 2019 new year message, I had said, “…it more productive to look forward than back. What is done is done – you can’t change it, so look forward to the next play. While you can learn from your mistakes, there is little use in crying over spilt milk.”
It is advice I have to apply to myself.
