LITTLE CUP, BIG SETTING: That setting is an eight-hectare Delta property near Boundary Bay for which Jay Garnett, Paul Sullivan, and Tony and Claudia Tornquist paid $2 million in 2016. Last year, they spent another $100,000 levelling, draining, planting and spreading 90 tones of cow manure on 4.8 hectares to accommodate a regulation-size 10-acre polo field and surrounds. Following a mowing, the Vancouver Polo Club they founded will host its first game there in May, likely with a half-dozen club horses available for those who’d rather not pay $15,000 to $25,000 for their own. By summertime, the B.C. Polo Challenge Cup will be awarded for the first time since 1921. Larry Emrick found the dented, tarnished trophy at Southlands Riding Club, inscribed with the names of original winners A. Taylor (presumably industrialist-horseman Austin Taylor), A. Houstoun, J.G. Fordham and J.P. Fell, who bested a Kamloops team. As for today’s show-ring competitors, “We’ll offer a whole new accessibility,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to turn hunter-jumpers into polo players.”
