Va. Event Aims to Prove Polo Isn't Just for Princes

Salahi grew up among the vines and horses and began competing for prize money in Germany and Luxembourg as a hunter jumper at 15. He was introduced to polo soon afterward and went on to win national polo championships with a team at the University of California at Davis, where he studied winemaking.

After graduation and a tour through Europe, Australia and California, during which he honed his palate for world-class sparkling wine with "a mineral finish, buttery vanilla aromas and lots of cream," he came home and turned his father's hobby into an award-winning business.

Now, he plays polo in a local league and is captain of a national team that is frequently invited by embassies and heads of state in other countries to play for charity. He once played polo on the back of an elephant in Thailand. This fall, he will play for a cancer fundraiser in Jordan at the invitation of King Abdullah II.

Wherever he goes, he talks up his home state and the wine-and-ponies lifestyle. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) appointed him last year to the board of directors of the Virginia Tourism Authority. He has long promoted the state's wine industry.

"You're looking at the Napa Valley of the East Coast," he said, pulling out of his driveway and past the Marriott family ranch and country homes behind picket fences with rows of spindly vines testing the Piedmont soils.

The agro-entrepreneur, who makes deals on his cellphone while maneuvering curvy country roads in his Audi, views the leafy hills as a vast opportunity for Virginia. Polo, Salahi said, can become a tourist draw. With 40 fields in a 50-mile radius, he said, Northern Virginia is a major hub for the sport. He imagines city dwellers on a wine-tasting weekend catching a match before turning in at a bed-and-breakfast.

On a recent day, he stopped by a farm in The Plains where he boards his horses. For a moment, he was surrounded by dozens of polo ponies -- thoroughbreds and Argentines, "painted" with white spots or soft and brown. He said it's addictive to work "as a team with such brilliant, beautiful, graceful animals."

With the new America's Cup at stake, the team captain might have stayed a while to work on his game, but the phone was ringing. The latest sponsors needed a tent, a team of planners was waiting to brief him on the program and he had a whole sport to promote. He turned back to the car.

"The truth? I don't have time," he said.