U.S., U.K. Play Today in Debut Match
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Winery owner Tareq Salahi donned a Virginia is for Lovers polo jersey on his trip to England two years ago to compete against members of the royal family for the Hunt Cup. It was one of the most aggressive matches of his 20-year polo career. Prince Harry hit him on the back with a mallet, knocking the wind out of him, Salahi said, but after a 30-minute timeout, he recovered enough to steal the ball from Prince Charles.
Despite Salahi's efforts, the U.S. team tied the British 1-1 that day, and the Hunt Cup remained in England. Now, it's time for a rematch. A British team, minus the royalty, is coming to Morven Park in Leesburg today to compete in the first America's Cup of Polo.
Salahi, 37, organized the match not only to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in America but also to show the world that polo is not just for princes. His goal is to launch a signature event for polo, akin to the U.S. Open of tennis, that will draw attention to a sport usually played on private fields in horse-country hinterlands.
"The stigma around polo is that it's for the elite and the rich," he said. Actually, he said, it's cheaper than golf or skiing. Salahi said that indoor arena leagues, in which players can lease horses, have given the sport momentum. His event this weekend is meant to add a boost.
Salahi aims for a crowd of spectators with some Who's Who types and some Whoevers. He built an extra helicopter pad for President Bush, should he -- or someone close to him -- drop by. But he also set aside lots of newly seeded lawn for suburban families with picnic blankets. And although there are many VIP passes for diplomats and dignitaries, he has offered hundreds of discount tickets to students, children and active military personnel.
If the main event -- the match between the Cartier U.S. Polo Team and the Ritz-Carlton British Polo Team -- doesn't appeal to the target audience, Salahi has other entertainment planned. Native American dancers, the Urban Nation hip-hop choir and the rock band Journey are on the program. So are Blackwater USA's Air Parachute Team, a Navy F-18 flyover and a fireworks display that Salahi says will be "better than D.C. on the 4th of July."
Salahi has a good track record of turning people on to the sport. When he met his wife, Michaele, a fashion model who was living part time in New York, she had never set foot on a polo field.
"I was into clubs, restaurants, what designs are you wearing," she said. But on one of their first dates, he sent a limousine to take her to a match. Five years later, she has her own Argentine riding boots. And although she prefers horse-riding gear to riding, she is well-versed in the basics of the sport.
The match is divided into seven-minute periods called chukkers. Each team has four players, and they can be men or women, amateurs or professionals.
Salahi usually participates as a patron, an amateur who assembles teams and coordinates and pays for events. It's a fitting role: He and his wife are polished party hosts. "We're really good at this," Salahi said. They organize charity balls, political fundraisers, fashion shows and other polo events.
They often entertain at Oasis Winery, the family vineyard in Fauquier County, with its back patio overlooking Skyline Drive. The winery is a testament to a lifestyle in which work and leisure mix. In Salahi's office, the Italian-made conference table doubles as a pool table, and the couple's Doberman, Rio, has a mat. The tasting room has pictures of the couple -- bubbly in hand -- on the pages of society magazines and with Jerry Seinfeld at a fundraiser.
The vineyard was started by Salahi's father, Dirgham Salahi, a Palestinian who immigrated to the United States from Jerusalem in the 1940s and became a geologist, retiring to the Virginia countryside when Salahi was 7.
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.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.