AIKEN - Organizers of the third leg of the Triple Crown have a message for spectators: polo is a rough-and-tumble, action-packed sport.
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Francisco Bilbao, with the Woodside Plantation Polo Team, watches the ball as he turns his horse for a shot during a high goal polo match in Aiken.
Ron Cockerille/The Augusta Chronicle
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"This sport should have been placed on the sports page, not the society page," said Tom Biddle of Aiken Polo Club.
Polo replaces harness racing this year after the University of South Carolina Aiken, which is sponsoring the event, parted ways with Bruce McGhee, the owner of the McGhees' Mile Track.
Mallets and chukkers are a radical break from harness racing, but Mr. Biddle said spectators will enjoy the sport's non-stop pace and team atmosphere.
They'll be treated to a round-robin tournament of matches, and a well-versed announcer who will be on hand to explain the sport, he said.
"This is a contest. It's not a demonstration," said Mr. Biddle, who will likely be playing in the game. "You keep score and people are trying to win."
Aiken has a rich polo tradition stretching more than 100 years, which makes the sport the perfect replacement for harness racing, which is in decline, Mr. Biddle said.
"It should have been this way when they first organized the thing," he said. "It's the oldest equine event in Aiken."
The city is fast becoming a hot-spot for polo.
Mr. Biddle, who also sells real estate, said he's sold roughly 7,000 acres of land in the past eight years, valued at more than $20 million, to equestrian enthusiasts, most of the acreage devoted to polo.
There are more than 19 polo fields in Aiken County, and six more are under construction, he said.
The growth of polo in Aiken also is attracting top-flight talent. The city claims several of the country's best players, including Adam Snow, Owen Rhinehart and Matias Magrini, who train here throughout the year.
Mr. Biddle said most of those players will be in Florida during the tournament, but that matches would still supply highly entertaining competition.
Switching to polo puts an end to 16 consecutive years of harness racing. Mr. McGhee, the former harness host, told USC Aiken last year that he was still willing to put on the race but couldn't provide horses or riders.
The prime beneficiary of the event is the USC Aiken athletic department, whose teams bear the Pacer logo, a nickname for harness horses. The Triple Crown event is the department's biggest fund-raiser, said Athletic Director Randy Warrick, who expects to net $20,000.
With this much charity change on the line, organizers were forced to make a switch in the face of harness racing's steady slide, Mr. Warrick said.
"The handwriting was on the wall," he said. "It was getting harder and harder to get harness horses to Aiken. It was a matter of staying with harness racing or switching to polo, which is really starting to boom again."
The harness race had become the most relaxed of the three contests, characterized more by Budweiser than Bordeaux. But Mr. Biddle said the polo matches will maintain a lighthearted feel.
He said the matches would be "spiced up" with bicycle polo played by students from Aiken Preparatory School during intermissions. There's a possible celebrity match also in the works.
Reach Josh Gelinas at (803)279-6895 or josh.gelinas@augustachronicle.com.
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