In horse polo, the greatest measure of individual skill is found in a player’s handicap, which for players registered to the Hurlingham Polo Association is measured on a scale from minus two to ten goals.
Much like with golf handicaps, a polo handicap is not merely a measure of pride but is also a way to even up the odds and allow players of all skill levels to compete fairly with each other.
In a typical polo match, the handicaps of all four players on a team are compared to the handicaps of all four players on the other team, with the resulting difference being the score at the start of the game, which, theoretically could be as high as 48 if a team of ten-goal players played against a team of minus-two players.
This would never happen, however. This is in part due to the sheer unsportsmanlike cruelty of a team of the best players in the world demolishing players who have only just played enough games to attain a handicap, and in part, because there are only three outdoor ten-goal players currently active.
In outdoor polo, all three ten-goal players are Argentinan, a country with a rich tradition of mastery of the sport of kings. The most notable is Adolfo Cambiaso, one of the world’s best polo players, the youngest player to achieve a ten-goal handicap up to that point and a pioneer in the world of breeding and horse cloning.
The only player to beat him in the first two categories was Facundo Pieres, a player who was briefly the world’s number one in late 2022, was a year younger when he became a ten-goal player and has consistently been within just a few World Polo Tour ranking points than the senior Mr Cambiaso.
Finally, there is Hilario Ulloa, as of 2022 the most recent person to become a ten-goal player in 2017, ranked in the top ten of the World Poker Tour and a consistent major tournament finalist.
In arena polo, only Max Charlton of Great Britain has become a ten-goal player, with a six-goal handicap in outdoor polo, and in women’s polo, Hazel Jackson and Carina Clarkin are trailblazers with strong outdoor handicaps.