Jessica Rea, On Our Selection News

In 2025 The Downs Polo Club celebrates 130 years of polo on the Darling Downs.

One of the oldest polo clubs in Australia finds its home in Clifton, keeping a tight grip on its rural roots whilst producing some of Australia’s great polo players and ponies.

Few things are as thrilling as taking to the field with your trusty polo pony, your team mates, friends and family, and playing the sport of polo.

The crack of the mallet as it strikes the ball is addictive and leaves players chasing the perfect game.

Right here on the Darling Downs, polo has a rich history rooted in the pastoral landscape and associated with the rural heritage of our district.

A rural heart that is growing in popularity once again, with the hard work of a small committee at the Downs Polo Club, members dedicated to their horses and their sport.

As we look back over the past 130 years of our history, we recall stories from the early days of the sport where, after a long working week on the farm, players would ride their stockhorses to one of the many polo fields scattered across the district and compete in a social game of polo.

For generations, rural families have played polo, their names synonymous with the district; Grimes, Gilmore, Telford, MacGinley, O’Leary and Hoey to name just a few.

Many of these families continue to play and support the Downs Polo Club today, bolstered by fresh faces and names drawn to the sport and driving it forward.

In 1895, at a meeting of like-minded players who gathered at the Club Hotel in Clifton, the Downs Polo Association was formed.

What would unfold from that initial meeting would be a legacy of great players and ponies who would make their way across the world with a passport gifted to them through the sport of polo.

In her book, A History of Queensland Polo, Gene Makim documents the early development of polo in the region.

She describes the Darling Downs as ‘the nucleus for the greatest polo players in Queensland and Australia, some of them world rated’.

One such name being Pat MacGinley who reached a handicap of five goals, represented Australia four times and was inducted into the Australian Polo Hall of Fame in 2013.

His contribution to polo was immeasurable, particularly here on the Downs where he mentored up and coming players offering advice and even horses to play.

Another, Glen Gilmore who attended school in Allora, and reached a height of 8 goals, has played for Australia, managed the Guards Polo Club in England and continues to manage high goal teams across the globe.

Here we name just two players synonymous with the sport of polo but both finds their roots on the Darling Downs as Australia’s highest rated polo player, Sinclair Hill described it, ‘from that great nursery of polo, the Darling Downs’.

The concentration of great players who descend from the Darling Downs is nothing short of magic.

Gene Makim writes, ‘it is unlikely that any such small area in the world, except Argentina, has produced so many champions in one specific sport’.

That greatness extends to our ponies who have been bred, produced and played in Clifton and who have gone on to greatness.

The stockhorses produced on the Darling Downs are tough, strong and athletic, all essential for the sport of polo.

Pat MacGinley wrote of one such horse, Longpocket, who was a cheeky little horse who would go on to play five World Cup finals, and a further three chukkas in the US 40 goal, the highest rated competition in polo.

‘Not bad for a little horse from the bush’, wrote MacGinley.

Another such horse to come off the Downs to national success is Greentrees Milo, produced and played by Jack Mantova and owned by the Mantova family.

Milo would go on to play for Argentina in the 2017 Polo World Cup played at the Sydney Polo Club.

He played his part in the game before being brought out in the extra chukka, thundering down the field to score the golden goal, securing the win for the Argentine side and still managing to chuck in a cheeky buck as his crossed the back line.

Milo was awarded Champion Playing Pony of the 2017 Polo World Cup.

Today, the Downs Polo Club and its hard working committee strive to keep polo thriving at its home at the Clifton Showgrounds.

Players at the Downs Polo Club work incredibly hard throughout the year, preparing their string of ponies for the season, getting them to peak fitness and honing their skills on the field.

It’s a tiring process, getting up at 5am to work the horses, often in the cold of winter as the main polo season takes place in the cooler months here on the Downs (something we often think we should reconsider, but who are we to argue with 130 years of scheduling!).

Taking to the field at the weekend is pure joy, many families still play together with fathers taking on sons, fathers and daughters teaming up against brothers and uncles or even grandfathers riding alongside their grandkids.

There are not many sports in which that can happen and we are proud to be able to make it so at the Downs Polo Club.

This article appeared in On Our Selection News, 17 July 2025.