Polo Cream 28/11/07 15:20 Page 116
RIGHT: Adolfo and Maria model La Dolfina
Polo Lifestyle fashion
Lifestyle. The collection is centered around practicality as well
as style and worn by all the team. Available at its luxurious
flagship boutique in central Argentina and online, it will be
launched in Europe in 2008. The collection is named after
Adolfo’s elegant 100-acre ranch La Dolfina (inspired by his
nick-name Dolfi). It is here that Adolfo is able to indulge one of
his greatest passions – embryo breeding.
Over recent years, Argentina has earned a reputation as a
global leader in breeding polo horses and each year, around
2,500 ponies make their way from the pampas to the paddocks
of international polo clubs. The starting price for an average
polo pony is £5,000 and a top playing and potential breeding
champion will set you back £100,000+.
Argentina’s success in breeding is largely due to a
reproductive technology known as embryo transfer.
The technique enables breeders to take the embryos of
champion mares and implant them in less valuable mares for
the remainder of the pregnancy. This technique has about a
65% hit rate and costs approximately £1,000 per transfer.
Such is the demand for the very best pedigree horses that
some breeding consortiums are buying embryos prior to the
foal’s birth. An unborn embryo from a top mare and champion
stallion can fetch up to £25,000.
‘Over 70% of our playing ponies are bred this way,’ explains
Adolfo, who has been developing the technique for six years. ‘It
means that we can take eggs out of a two year-old and put
them into a horse that is not playing, so we can continue
playing on the mare that has donated her eggs.’ To enable
them to ovulate at a consistent rate the mares need 16 hours of
sunlight per day. Ovulation occurs 2/3 times per year.
‘We take three or four embryos from each horse between
December and March. In one match, we had three generations
in the same game! This I love, this is putting something back
into the game.’
Adolfo is also proud of what he describes as his legacy to
polo: ‘I believe I have made polo more popular, more
accessible. It is cheaper to watch polo than soccer! Everybody
is supporting me with this now but it was difficult in the
beginning. When I started my own team ‘La Dolfina’ to play at
the Argentinian Open in 2000, I wanted to open the sport to
everyone, not just for the straw hat brigade, but people were
against me and would boo on the field. Now it is different and I
have achieved radical changes.’
torque | 116
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164