HPRC to fly the flag for Indian polo in Spain and the United States

Madrid: two matches on grass, and a party

The tour opens in Spain. After a day of stick-and-ball and a day of practice chukkers, HPRC India meets Madrid Polo Club in a four-a-side fixture on Saturday 26 September, followed by a mixed-teams match on Sunday 27 September in which players from both clubs are drawn together. Madrid Polo Club is hosting the visiting side throughout, providing horses, grooms and tack, and closes the weekend with a party at the club for both teams and their supporters.

Kentucky: under lights at Commonwealth Polo Club

From Madrid the team flies to the Bluegrass. Commonwealth Polo Club at Paris, Kentucky — one of the leading arena polo clubs in the United States and home to the University of Kentucky polo programme — hosts two days of practice chukkers on 30 September and 1 October before the tour's final on Saturday 3 October, played three-a-side under floodlights in Commonwealth's arena.

A third international tour

This is the third time HPRC has taken a team overseas. The club's international outreach began with a tour to Hawaii, and in October 2024 HPRC riders represented India at the Buddy Combs International Arena Challenge at Lakeside Polo Club, San Diego. In a match that finished 14-12 to the hosts after being tied 11-11 going into the final chukker, Chaitania Kumar scored five goals and Arsalan Khan was named Most Valuable Player. The side travelled with the blessing of the Indian Polo Association, whose Secretary, Col Vikram Kahlon of the 61st Cavalry, was with the team in San Diego. Robin Sanchez, Chairman of the United States Polo Association's arena committee, described the fixture as historic for bringing together the country that gave the modern game to the world and the country that shaped arena polo.

The traffic has run both ways. In February this year HPRC hosted the International Arena Polo Championship at Aziznagar, with teams from the United States, Spain, France and Luxembourg; India beat France 21-14 in the final. The club also staged the Indian national arena team's training camp ahead of the FIP Arena World Championship zone playoffs, and was named Arena Polo Club of the Season at The Indian Polo Awards in both 2025 and 2026 — the first club to receive the award, and the first to retain it.

Hyderabad as a polo destination

Behind every tour and every visiting side is a single aim: to build polo tourism in Telangana, and to put Hyderabad on the map as a place the world comes to play, to watch and to learn the game. That is why HPRC hosts international arena polo in Hyderabad each year, why it brings teams from the United States, Europe and elsewhere to Aziznagar, and why it takes its own riders abroad — every fixture is an introduction, and every introduction is an invitation back. Visiting players find in Hyderabad a floodlit arena, a hundred horses, a structured coaching programme from stick-and-ball to competitive chukkers, and the city's hospitality at the club's door. The tours to Hawaii and San Diego have already brought players and officials from those clubs to Telangana; Madrid and Kentucky are the next two names on that list.