Anuario Raza Polo Argentino Anuario2018 | Page 237

was a false illusion, because this didn’t happen
and many breeders like myself suffered the
consequences.
The second circumstance was the fall in demand
when patrons—who unfortunately are the only
ones financing the business— disappeared.
There are breeders who are unable to play unless
a patron buys only from them. That ends in the
destruction of small breeders with no teams
acting as patrons. Many rumors go around that
are not true in this sport.
Lastly, the change in tax laws, not taking into
consideration that it takes 6 years to produce
a polo pony—and to achieve state-of-the-art
cloning technology, much more—was the final
blow to breeding.
As regards the future, I also think that things are
distorted to suit different interests. Something
nobody talks about is the hundreds or thousands
of embryos that were and are produced, with
no future for the sport; only because it benefits
some few.
And that is where clones come in, and the
fallacy that they destroy the breed. There is no
greater falsehood. Clones improve bloodstock
by generating more options by which to improve
the breed. I prefer to breed less, but with a clone
of a mare that was a good dam and not dozens
of mediocre dams that generate discards and
expense.
As a small country, Argentina has a hard time
becoming number one at something. And in polo
it is number one.
Nothing could be worse than that it later
become stagnant due to not opening up to
better technologies—which are also the best in
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