Interview

FIP president, successful horse breeder and scion of the luxury goods dynasty, Patrick Guerrand-Hermès is a passionate polo enthusiast and an unstinting ambassador for the sport, says Herbert Spencer

IllustratIon phil disley

Patrick Guerrand-Hermès, president of the Federation of International Polo (FIP), has popped across the Channel from his château outside Chantilly to lunch with me at the charming Cottage Inn, a favourite watering hole of polo players and supporters near the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club. We’re very late, but the jovial proprietor, Bobby King, offers us a bottle of well-chilled champagne on the house and rustles up a light lunch of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.

The dapper Monsieur Patrick sheds his jacket in the unusual heat of the May afternoon, revealing bright yellow braces bracketing his customary black knit tie, and launches into an account of his life and times. The Frenchman is a great raconteur, full of self-effacing humour, his delivery in the accented English of an aristocratic anglophile.

One of his favourite tales is from his days in the family firm of Hermès in the time of Charles de Gaulle as president of France. One of Patrick’s tasks was convincing the general to leave the lights of the Elysée Palace ablaze to add to the glamour of the annual street party of luxury boutiques in the capital’s Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

‘The president always went to bed early,’ says Patrick, ‘and, as a very frugal man, ordered the lights of the palace turned out when he retired. Leaving them on for our fête was a great concession. If the national economy was healthy, he would give us until 11 pm. If it wasn’t, it was lights out at 10:30.’

Patrick, born in Paris 75 years ago, is proud of his long career at Hermès, the firm that started life as a maker of carriage harnesses for the aristocracy in 1837 and grew to be one of world’s most famous upscale brands with its saddles, silk scarves, high fashion and fragrances. It is respected ‘old family’ money that has enabled Patrick to live the good life and travel the world, at his own expense, as president of FIP.

Despite the Hermès clan’s longestablished equestrian image, there was no polo in the family until Patrick came along, and he himself first hit the saddle in other horse sports. ‘I was given my first horse by a Marshal of France, a week after the liberation of Paris,’ he recalls. ‘From that day on, horses and horse sports have always been a very important part of my life.’ He began competing as an amateur first in show jumping, then dressage, eventing and steeplechase racing. Slight of stature, he had a typical jockey’s build. ‘I was such a lightweight that I had to add weight to the saddle to qualify for some races,’ he recalls.

After retiring from competition in those disciplines, Patrick remained active in equestrian affairs. Following the tragic death in a road accident of his 17-year old son, one of France’s most promising young show jumpers, he established the prestigious Lionel Guerrand-Hermès Memorial Trophy,

presented annually to the rider aged 16 to 21 who best exemplifies the ideal of sportsmanship and horsemanship.

Patrick finally came into polo through cavalry service in Fez, Morocco. There was still conscription in France in 1953, but Patrick volunteered before he could be called up so he could choose his regiment. ‘When I arrived as a raw officer cadet in Fez, I suddenly heard my name shouted out,’ he remembers. ‘What had I done wrong, was I headed for the stockade?’ A major had been injured in a polo match and, knowing Patrick’s reputation as a rider, the regiment drafted him in as a substitute. ‘Never having played the game, I hardly knew which end of the stick to use to hit the ball, but actually managed to score a goal. It was great fun and I was well and truly hooked for life on a new horse sport.’

Once young Patrick had completed his national service, he joined the family firm and Hermès packed him off to the US to learn the luxury retail trade from the ground up. ‘I went first to Neiman Marcus, one of Hermès’ biggest clients, in Dallas,’ he says. ‘In my spare time, I got a real grounding in polo playing there with the Texans, many of whom came straight off the ranch.’

After a stint at Harvard Business School, Patrick was recalled to Paris to become the first member of his generation of the Hermès family to work in the firm’s headquarters in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. ‘I didn’t even have a title at first, just “Monsieur Patrick”.’ Then, with a wry smile: ‘Coming straight from Harvard, I must have thought I was really hot stuff.’ Eventually he rose to become director of Hermès International.

Continuing his polo career in Europe, Patrick competed at Polo de Paris, Deauville, in England, and at Sotogrande in Spain. One of his last triumphs in high goal polo came in his seventies, when he won the coveted Deauville Gold Cup.

Meanwhile, Patrick established his own polo club and horse breeding and training operation outside Marrakech in Morocco: ‘I’ve produced around 200 horses there, mainly through embryo transplant. I now keep 38 polo ponies, all but one of which I bred myself.’

In 1995 Patrick founded a new club just up the road from his château near Chantilly, France’s ‘Capital of the Horse’. The Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly is France’s largest, with nine tournament grounds, two sand arenas for winter polo, and stabling for 400 ponies in the high season.

Patrick became an FIP Ambassador in 1999, and in 2004 hosted the final stage of the federation’s World Cup at his Chantilly club, organised with typical French flair. It was partly the success of that event that led to his election as president of FIP in November 2005. It did no harm, of course, that Patrick is a man of considerable means and master of his own time.

Patrick’s two-and-a-half years as president of FIP has not been all smooth sailing. He inherited a global organisation that has now grown to include more than 80 countries, from small ones where the seeds of the sport have only recently been sown, to the ‘big three’ polo-playing nations – England, the USA and Argentina – with their thousands of players. Their needs and aspirations do not always coincide. ‘I am well aware that some players and even executives of various national associations have questioned the usefulness of their federation,’ says the president. ‘Polo has come a long way since FIP was founded a quarter-century ago. More countries,

players, clubs; more money from corporate sponsorship; higher standards in such things as ponies, pony welfare, grounds, how tournaments are organised, governance – overall, a more professional approach to the sport. It is right that our members expect a similar degree of professionalism from their federation.

Most of the FIP’s officials, however, have been volunteers from the amateur sector in both small and large countries. ‘There is a feeling now that we need to recruit some respected professional players who may also have strong organisational skills,’ he continues. ‘Their expertise could prove invaluable, but we cannot expect them to always volunteer their time and pay their own expenses.’

Herein lies one of FIP’s dilemmas. The federation operates on a shoestring budget, with an income of less than $300,000 anticipated for 2008. ‘If the national associations want us to bring in professional support, they must help us find ways to increase funding to pay for it,’ says Patrick.

Meanwhile, the FIP president says, ‘it is very important that the federation is as open and above board about its problems as it is proud of its achievements, and we want to get all the feedback we can from the whole polo community.

‘This is why, towards the end of our eighth World Cup in Mexico earlier this month [see page 44], I invited representatives of all eight competing teams to appear before our Council of Administration to air their views. The teams thanked our Mexican hosts for their tremendous efforts, as one of our smaller polo countries, in organising such a big international event. At the same time, there was a frank and open discussion of how we should improve procedures for the next World Cup wherever it is held.

A few days after his flying visit to the UK, I get a phone call from Patrick in Chantilly, just returned from Morocco. Three of his Arabian Thoroughbreds had taken win, place and show in the royal Grand Prix in Casablanca over the weekend. For this consummate horseman, that must be on a par on the satisfaction scale with winning the FIP Ambassadors Cup alongside Adolfo Cambiaso, the world’s top professional player.