Polo is the Passport to the World
Spain on grass, by one goal. The United States under lights, 10–10 after overtime. In twelve days this autumn a team from Hyderabad played two of the world’s most welcoming clubs on their own grounds and horses — and came home with two invitations to return the favour.
October 2026 · HPRC News · 9 minute read
Polo is the Passport to the World
Every club that has ever hosted HPRC has become a friend of Hyderabad. That is the whole idea.
On 23 September four HPRC players, their families and a small band of supporters left Hyderabad for Madrid. Over the next twelve days they rode twelve borrowed horses in Spain and three each in Kentucky, played three matches as India against two established clubs, stood in a Grade 1 winner’s circle at Keeneland, and came home with the scores that matter least and the friendships that matter most.
It was the club’s third international tour, after Hawaii and San Diego in 2024. It was also the clearest expression yet of the idea that now shapes everything HPRC does: polo is a passport. A polo ball is the same size in Madrid, Lexington and Aziznagar; the rules are the same; the handshake after the final bell is the same. Play the game abroad and you are not a tourist — you are, for a weekend, a member of someone else’s club. Host the game at home and the world comes to you.
Madrid · 23–27 September
Spain on grass, by one goal
Madrid Polo Club, at San Fernando de Henares east of the city, had the horses ready before the team had unpacked — three for every visiting player, tacked and turned out. Saturday was the Friendship Cup, played in mixed teams with two HPRC players and two Madrid members on each side. The White team of MGV, Ivan Davila, Chaitania Kumar and Arsalan Khan took it 4–3, and both clubs sat down together that evening for the Teams Dinner. Another night brought flamenco in the old town, both clubs and their families in the front rows.
Sunday was the Clubs Cup, India against Spain. Chaitania Kumar opened the scoring and Arsalan Khan added two; at 3–3 India defended with discipline until Madrid converted the winner in the last minutes of the final chukker. Spain 4, India 3 — a home side on its own horses taken to the final minutes by four players who had first sat on those horses three days earlier.
“Madrid Polo Club opened their club, their horses and their city to us. We lost the Cup by a goal in the last minutes and nobody minded. That is what the tour was for.”
— Chaitania R. Kumar, President, HPRC
The story travelled home within a day — the Clubs Cup was reported in the Indian press the next morning. More importantly, it travelled forward: Madrid Polo Club has been invited to bring a team to Hyderabad, and HPRC expects to welcome them at Aziznagar.
Kentucky · 29 September – 4 October
The United States under lights, 10–10
From Madrid the team flew to Lexington, the horse capital of the world, as guests of Commonwealth Polo Club at Paris, Kentucky. The week began with practice chukkers on Commonwealth’s horses and a morning at Gainesway Farm, where the party met Tapit — the grey who sired a generation of champions — in the stallion barns that architects travel to see. At Darley they met Cody’s Wish and heard the story behind his name. On Friday, opening day of the Keeneland Fall Meet, Gainesway’s own Emphatic won the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades by a couple of lengths, and the HPRC party was invited into the winner’s circle for the trophy presentation.
Saturday night was the final: Commonwealth Polo Club against HPRC, arena polo, three a side, under lights. It was neck and neck through four chukkers and into overtime. Chaitania Kumar scored four, Arsalan Khan four, Saif Attari two, and when the last bell rang the scoreboard read USA 10, India 10. Nobody deserved to lose it, and nobody did. A barbecue at the club and the exchange of commemorative shirts with Jorge Vasquez and his members closed the week.
“That was as hard a game of arena polo as any of us have played. Commonwealth gave us their horses, their arena and a very good side, and then fed us all at the barbecue. That is polo, and that is Kentucky.”
— Chaitania R. Kumar
Why HPRC tours
Bridges, built one weekend at a time
A tour is not a holiday with horses. Each one is a deliberate piece of club-building, with three purposes.
Represent
To carry Hyderabad and India onto established clubs’ home grounds, and to conduct ourselves there in a way that does credit to both.
Develop
Competitive polo on unfamiliar horses, against a different style of play, is the fastest education a player can get.
Connect
To make friends who will come back to us. Every club we visit is a club we intend to host.
Hawaii and San Diego came first. Madrid Polo Club and Commonwealth Polo Club have now both been invited to Hyderabad. Each is a bridge, and HPRC stands at one end of all of them.
Arena polo in Hyderabad
The game that brings the world to Aziznagar
The bridges carry traffic in both directions because of what has been built at home. HPRC is the only polo club in Telangana and the Hyderabad home of the Indian Polo Team’s international fixtures. Its floodlit arena at Aziznagar, twenty minutes from the city, is where India plays visiting nations and where the club’s own cups are decided — the Radha TMT Cup and the Telangana Tourism Cup in 2026, in handicap brackets from 2–4 goals to 6–8.
With more than 140 horses stabled, 95 of them club-owned, HPRC can mount a visiting team the way Madrid and Commonwealth mounted us: three or four horses a player, one for every chukker, tacked and waiting. The Indian Polo Awards have named HPRC Arena Polo Club of the Season in both 2025 and 2026 — the first and only club to win it twice.
International Arena Polo Championship · 17–24 January 2027
Six nations, one arena
In January the traffic flows the other way. The International Arena Polo Championship 2027 brings six nations to the HPRC Arena for eight days: the United States, Canada, Spain, India, Italy and Germany. A low-goal tournament opens the week; the Best of the Best and a women’s exhibition match follow on the Friday; the high-goal league runs into a Saturday low-goal final and a Sunday high-goal final. Robin Sanchez, international player, leads the technical committee as Chief Umpire, and The Great Indian Chukker, the club’s own magazine, publishes its 2027 edition for the week.
Some of the players HPRC met this autumn in Madrid and Kentucky will be on that list. That is how the passport works.
HPRC in numbers
Polo tourism
Come and play. Stay a week, or a season.
The next stage turns visiting teams into visiting guests. HPRC is building a 50-room hotel on the club grounds at Aziznagar. When it opens, a player from Madrid, Lexington, Munich or Toronto will be able to do at Hyderabad exactly what HPRC did this autumn in Spain and Kentucky — arrive, find the horses ready, and play — and then walk back to a room on the club, with the stables, the arena and the grass field outside the door.
Polo weekends
A long weekend or a week of chukkers, coaching and a tournament on club horses — with Hyderabad’s forts, palaces and food in the afternoons.
Training residencies
A month or a season on a string of HPRC horses under the club’s coaches, for players who want to go up a goal and teams who want a winter base in the sun.
Tournament packages
Whole clubs mounted from the HPRC string, housed on the grounds and entered in the International Arena Polo Championship or the club’s own cups.
Madrid lent HPRC twelve horses and a city. Kentucky gave it an arena, a winner’s circle and a barbecue. Hyderabad will give the world a club to stay in. Polo is the passport; HPRC intends to be one of the places it is stamped most often.
Play at HPRC
Teams and players interested in the International Arena Polo Championship 2027, a polo weekend or a training residency can write to polo@hprc.co.in, or to the President at chaitania@hprc.in. Follow the club on Instagram at @hydprc.
With thanks to Madrid Polo Club — Ivan, Mario and Lorenzo — and to Commonwealth Polo Club — Jorge Vasquez and his members — for the horses, the grounds, the welcome and the memories. Photographs: HPRC, Madrid Polo Club and Commonwealth Polo Club.