I had four wonderful days in Kota Kinabalu at the invitation of the Sabah Polo Association. I gave a two day umpires and rules clinic and finished with RMPA Rules and RMPA C Grade Umpires Tests. It wasn’t surprised that we got a 100% pass rate as the Sabahans are an enthusiastic lot that are thirsting for polo knowledge.
In the end, it was about the horses. Three of the four horses I picked out when I first saw the YOG horses at Glen Haven in April finished in the top three of the Youth Olympic Games. The winner, Links Hot Gossip could be a reincarnation of my old World Cup Jumper, Chakwal. They are so similar in looks, attitude and jumping style. I loved this horse the moment I laid eyes on him four months ago. Flash Top Hat (3rd), Little Miss Sunshine (4th) and Gatineau were my other favourites.
The polo season is essentially over. Other than one more tournament in Terengganu after Raya, and a few club cups, it is basically club chukkas for those who haven’t yet sent their horses out for a spell.
No rest for the wicked, as they say. It is on to the next thing. In my world, the next big thing is the Youth Olympic Games.
I visited Bukit Timah Saddle Club, Singapore for the first time in daylight in 16 years. BTSC was so much a part of my life in the good old / bad old days. I did a whole lot of racing, jumping and eventing at that club, for oh, so many years. In fact, I even did a bit of saussage there, training best with Ulrike van Zanden, and doing some really worthwhile clinics with Maria Gunther and Wolgang Niggli.
Aliya and Farouk Khan had their definitive book on contemporary Malaysian art launched yesterday by the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin bin Mohd. Yassin. The Minister of Tourism, Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen was also present and took to opportunity to promote Malaysia by association with the Aliya and Farouk Khan (AFK) Collection.
It is great to be back at Iskandar Polo Club. This picturesque Ipoh club hasn’t seen a polo tournament since pre-Nipah virus outbreak in 1998. Polo died in Ipoh as they lost a lot of horses as the Nipah outbreak first started in the Tambun area.
The RSPC International returned to a much safer field at RSPC. The unanimous verdict was that after nine falls in three days, the ground at Putrajaya is not safe. Some of the photos show how the ground just blows apart like powder. No horse can stay on its feet when that happens.
It was tough to write anything these last few weeks. Every time I went to our websites, I was reminded on Al. He was so much a part of our daily lives that I will continue to miss him for quite some time.
Playing the Merdeka League tournament at Bukit Kiara was a good distraction. The tournament was a good one, despite a lot of rain on some days. The Kiara field drains well and never seems to get any slipperier. It is slippery enough when it is dry! We played 8 days of low goal polo there and by the end, the field was well ploughed.
Our webmaster, Alvin Tan passed away on Tuesday morning at about 7:30 am. He had had a massive heart attack on Wednesday evening after checking himself into University Hospital with what he thought had been a case of heartburn. We were oblivious to it at first , as the sms message Natasha got from Alvin’s wife, Sharon, missed out the “v” in his name, so we were wondering who “Alin” was that had had a heart attack. By the time we heard about it, Alvin was on life support, and was on dialysis as his kidneys were failing and he had water in his lungs. All too soon, Alvin was gone.
Yesterday’s Singapore steals the CSI 5* KL Grand Prix article on Equestrian.Com.My was our April Fool’s article this year. It is the eight year we have run April Fool’s articles, going back to 2003 when we ran a “world exclusive” that Rodrigo Pessoa was to marry a Malaccan princess and ride for Malaysia.
