Clare Milford-Haven is one of the biggest promoters of polo in England; her Great Trippetts Farm has a partnership with Gallagher, bringing them in as their sponsor “We've been quite successful this season but I don’t think it is all about success. It’s about us going out there and representing them on the field,” she said
Photo: @vjtphoto / @trippettspolo
Last year, when the HPA announced the suspension of polo due to the lockdown, we published an article featuring Clare Milford-Haven and her Great Trippets Farm. A friend told us the story of Clare and how she encouraged her grooms to take online English lessons at Oriol College, a school in Buenos Aires where she had studied Spanish. Located in West Sussex, just 15 minutes away from Cowdray Park, Great Trippetts is one of the biggest polo venues in the UK. With more than 250 horses stabled there and over 60 grooms working, the club keeps going all year round. However, that’s not all. Great Trippetts is also the home of Clare's polo team, Gallagher.
“I’ve been playing competitively for 22 years. It has changed my life in a very positive way. I have met so many lovely people through polo and it has been a life enhancing addition to my life”, Clare told CLICKPOLO.
After more than 20 years involved in the sport, Clare allied with Gallagher, one of the biggest insurance brokers in the world, to create the Gallagher Polo Team. “Gallagher approached me two years ago. We were at the Gold Cup and one of the key guys from Gallagher told me how much he would like for Gallagher to get into polo. I said I had somebody who could help him. Who's that? Me!” Clare shared.
Photo: @vjtphoto / @trippettspolo
This season the team has enjoyed a successful run playing low and mid-goal tournament at Cowdray, having won the Heyshott Cup last month. After two years together, Clare hopes that the relationship continues. “My long term goal is to keep Gallagher as our sponsor for our foreseeable future. I really hope that they can see the value in sponsoring our team. We've been quite successful this season, but I don't think it is all about success. It’s about us going out there and representing them on the field.”
The first experience in polo for Gallagher insurance broker
Every year we put special focus on the ten to fifteen teams that play the high-goal season. Big organizations that attract the best players in the world with one main goal: to win the Queen’s Cup or the Gold Cup, two of the most coveted trophies in the world. However, the polo pyramid has a very big base of patrons and teams that keep the clubs running and, for them, it is vital to have a sponsor who shares their vision.
“I recognize the importance of having a sponsor in polo. It doesn’t really matter what level you are playing at, whether it is high goal, medium or low goal. It is all about getting visibility for the brand. It helps me justify my passion and having a sponsor makes it the best job I can have in the world,” Clare said to CLICKPOLO.
Gallagher is not new to the world of sports, as they endorse the rugby Premiership in England, but this is their first experience in the Sport of Kings. “The branding in the polo world was not something anybody from the insurance world had ever done before and it gave us the chance to meet numerous people who were running large businesses around the globe and to whom we could offer insurance alternatives,” Matthew Pike, Managing Director from Gallagher Global told CLICKPOLO.
Photo: @vjtphoto / @trippettspolo
Moreover, it was also a great opportunity for Matthew himself to experience polo for the first time. “It has been great fun as we met a lot of new people. People we hadn’t come across before and who have been incredibly friendly. The games that Clare and her team have played have been very competitive and we enjoyed them. There’s a great crowd as well. I tell people to come and enjoy a sport that I didn’t know really well before”.
Photo: @vjtphoto / @trippettspolo
Inside Gallagher's organization
Clare and her husband bought Great Trippetts Farm in 2005 and worked hard to change it from a daily farm to a polo farm, which involved a lot of efforts and moving tons of earth. With the amazing Ground 1 as its highlight, the club hosts many of the most important organizations and top players who play regularly at Cowdray.
Photo: @vjtphoto / @trippettspolo
Working side by side with Clare is Bautista Sorzana, an Argentine player who joined Clare’s organization twenty years ago. “It has been a long journey together and, to be honest, it has been amazing. Clare has been my only patron in England and I’m mainly the Manager of the organization. I want our horses to be 100% and to have everything set, both the team and the grooms. At Gallagher we want to have nice and committed people around us. For me, that’s the key of a team.”
During the past two decades, the team has had experiences at every level of polo in England. “We started playing in the 8 goal and got to medium polo and even had a high-goal experience which was really fun,” said Bautista. “Being here at Trippetts is like a second home to me. It’s a perfect place to play polo and keep your horses.”
Photo: @vjtphoto / @trippettspolo