Tommy Beresford

With a Westchester Cup victory against the USA on his debut as England captain, polo player Tommy Beresford tells Sarah Eakin about grafting that win and the heritage of some special ponies

- Sarah Eakin

IF polo players were horses, and identified by their bloodlines, then Tomas – aka Tommy – Beresford would have come from good stock. His father and his two uncles on his mother’s side were all professional players and Tommy learnt the game from playing with polo legends. He has South American roots from his Chilean mother, Teresa Beresford, but he didn’t need to go looking for them – Argentina and the stars of Palermo came to him.

“To be a professional was always a dream of mine,” he says. “And I was very fortunate to be based at Great Trippets Farm, owned by George Milford Haven. My father [Charles Beresford] was the manager, so I always had a place to play practices and have all my horses. I was able to play polo with my father and my uncles and whichever high-goal players were based there.”

Tommy grew up playing alongside the likes of Gonzalito and Facundo Pieres, Matias and Pablo Macdonough, Pelon Sterling, Juan Martín Nero – all of them at the top of the modern polo pyramid. He had the influence of his father, a seven-goal professional, and his mother’s brothers, José and Gabriel Donoso, the latter of whom was a formidable nine-goal player.

“I was very lucky to have this close contact with these top professionals at an early age,” he says.

THIS year, Tommy takes the field with the same team-mates as last year in the UAE Polo Team 22-goal line-up, as they start a campaign for the Gold Cup for the British Open Championship at Cowdray Park. It is a rarity for high-goal teams to stay together for more than one season and it is a phenomenon that could pay dividends.