New polo club impacts Wellington’s global stake
There is a new polo club in the Wellington area and its advent bodes well for the sport’s future in the United States. “We were seeing that every time a polo field in Wellington was sold, it went to people from the horse show,” said former 10-goal player Argentina’s Miguel Novillo Astrada who is one of the pioneers behind the creation of the PLYRS Club. “We saw that in Wellington there was a shortage of fields and facilities. The vision is to play a lot of polo. We want to lower the barriers to enter polo – attract more people to start playing – and to generate more American players.”
With an understated but classical entrance gate, the PLYRS Club arrived on the Wellington polo scene last winter, located some 10 minutes from the National Polo Center as you head south to Boynton Beach. Florida State Road 7, or ‘441’ as it is commonly known, is an historical polo thoroughfare. Back in the polo heydays of the 80s and 90s it linked the clubs of Royal Palm Polo in Boca Raton and Palm Beach Polo and Country Club in Wellington and until recently was lined on the east side with wholesale nurseries selling palms and vegetation to landscape the ever burgeoning residential development. That landscape is changing.
Miguel, a longtime pivotal professional of the Coca-Cola polo team, worked alongside compatriot, polo player and developer Juan Sánchez Elía, to find a location and implement a vision. Two years ago they set out on a quest for land and took advice from Coca-Cola team owner Skey Johnston. “He said ‘I don’t understand why polo players don’t buy land south on 441,’” Miguel said.
It was 1978 when William T. “Bill” Ylvisaker brought world class polo to the marsh on the edge of the Florida Everglades with the creation of the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club in the City of Wellington. The PLYRS Club – a project sporting five polo fields and 14 barns, backed by big names in the sport – is designed to ensure the polo legacy Bill started, lives on.
Since conception, other household names in the polo world have come on board. Gonzalo Pieres Sr. and his sons – Gonzalo, Facundo and Nicolas Pieres – Mariano Aguerre, Pablo Mac Donough, Hilario Ulloa and Juan Martín Nero. “It is very interesting to see them working together,” said Juan, who was instrumental in creating the partnership, which also includes 2025 USPA Gold Cup winner Alejandro Poma and Nick Manifold, the longtime manager of the former White Birch polo team. “It’s the first time a group of elite polo players joined together to do such an endeavor – and start this new club with the idea of giving back,” Juan said. Manuel Cereceda, as manager of Minuto 7, will be the person promoting polo at PLYRS reflecting his experience in doing this from Argentina to St. Tropez, Thailand and Sotogrande.
Miguel’s polo résumé is impressive and includes winning the Argentine Triple Crown in 2003 with his brothers Javier, Eduardo and Ignacio – the only team of siblings to have ever achieved this. But players from Argentina depend on polo abroad for year-round business. Miguel’s career and those of his peers, have been forged by playing in the United States and in Florida in particular. “So many years of playing in Wellington has really had a lot to do with our polo careers,” he said. “It’s kind of our way to support American polo, to give something back now.”
The move was also inspired by the United States Polo Association’s purchase, three years ago, of The International Polo Club Palm Beach becoming what is now the National Polo Center [NPC] – the buyout securing a permanent center for polo in America.
“We are going to work with the USPA,” said Miguel. In this vein of complementing the existing polo scene, the PLYRS Club will host a warm up tournament in January for the 22-goal season – the USPA’s Gauntlet of Polo, which begins in February at NPC.
Last winter, the fields at the PLYRS Club saw their first tournament chukkers and a whole season of polo is planned for next winter. In addition to the sport on the fields, the PLYRS Club looks to bring a nostalgic element to the après-polo scene. “We want to build a nice clubhouse where we can also do the social part,” said Miguel. “Where people can get together after games or practice games. More like it was in the past – bring back the club atmosphere.”
Inspiration has been drawn from Argentina – not least the town of Pilar, which was bought by the Argentine Polo Association in the 60s to guarantee a home for the sport when the perpetuity of the downtown venue of Palermo was less certain. Pilar is integral to polo in Argentina and is home to leading worldwide polo organizations.
“In Argentina, we all have land and property where we have our horses,” said Miguel. “With the PLYRS Club, we have the same vision in securing a place to keep the horses, play practice games and get ready for the tournaments. It’s more of a club concept, like the old days, where you have all the services. We were seeing that in Wellington, if you don’t have your own property, then it’s really difficult to play or to practice. This will be a base for polo organizations.”
Pilar is promoted as the polo capital of the world, Wellington has the equivalent global sobriquet of equestrian capital in being home to the Winter Equestrian Festival – featuring world class show jumping – and the Global Dressage Festival, both of which run in venues within minutes of travel time of the winter high goal polo scene at NPC. Juan, while well addressed with the sport of polo, crosses over the disciplines, owning show jumping property in Wellington as well as New York. He believes it is time for equestrians to unite for a secure future – the PLYRS Club being indicative of that. “The horse industry has matured over the last years and is seeing better results from working together,” said Juan.
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