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Queen’s Cup and qualify for the final of
the Gold Cup. ‘El Remanso obviously had
a fantastic season. Having played the
previous year together definitely helped,’
Hanbury confirms. The tournaments may
not have concluded in Hanbury’s favour,
but he is as determined as ever to claim
those high-goal titles. ‘We will be giving
it one more shot next season with the same
team,’ he says. ‘We will all be looking to
improve our strings and hope to be able
to add at least three new horses each.
We will be in Argentina together for the
small season, playing practices and, if
dates work, tournaments too.’
When Hanbury is not competing in
Europe’s most prestigious polo competitions,
he keeps busy as managing director of
Lovelocks Polo Stud, one of the top breeding
programmes in both England and Argentina.
‘My goal is for the Lovelocks brand to
become a regular sight on polo fields around
the world, playing with the best players,’
Hanbury discloses. With the hype around
cloning in polo, the 4-goaler (5 in Argentina)
is well grounded in his opinions. ‘I think
cloning is interesting,’ says Hanbury. ‘I am
not against it. However, I do believe that my
best horse today is a lot better than my best
horse five years ago. Had I cloned five years
ago, I would feel like I was standing still a bit.’
Hanbury is quick to acknowledge the
range of possibilities cloning offers though.
‘It’s incredible that you can get a gelding to
come back as a colt,’ he says. ‘This is exciting
as great horses like Dolfina Toro and Colibrí
can come back and breed. There are a lot
of great geldings playing around the world
that we can now see adding their genetics
to breeding pools.’
So far, Lovelocks has made a huge mark
on the polo world through breeding alone,
and they have no intention of slowing
down any time soon. ‘This year we had
fourteen horses play the semi-final of the
Gold Cup and nineteen play the complete
UK high-goal season,’ says Hanbury.
‘Lovelocks wants to breed the best horses
possible. It’s my passion. I love horses,
it’s the reason I play polo.’
It certainly looks like Hanbury has
a lot more to contribute to polo, and whether
talking about playing or breeding, the best
is yet to come.
Previous page and above:
Charlie Hanbury
during the Gold Cup
this summer
I T ’ S M Y P A S S I O N , I L O V E
H O R S E S – I T ’ S T H E
R E A S O N I P L AY P O L O
