Since elephant polo was introduced to Thailand by the Thai Elephant Polo Association in 2001, and came under the Royal Patronage of His Majesty the King of Thailand as the King’s Cup, it has grown in scope and scale to become a major annual social event. However, we thought we would go to the elephants this year and have a much smaller tournament in the elephants’ hometown rather than the big city of Bangkok. Accordingly, The Elephant Story will host a tournament in Moo Baan Chang, June 24 and June 25 to mark the fifteenth year anniversary of elephant polo in Thailand.
In fact, we did a small dry run last year and concluded we needed something more formal than just some makeup team matches. Therefore, The Elephant Story tournament will have four teams comprised of Citi, Sara Story Design, ToleHouse Chameleons and The Elephant Story. We expect the majority of the sponsorship fees will be available to provide additional sustainability to the educational programs we have initiated in the primary and secondary schools there. In fact, we will play on the soccer pitch of the secondary school.
As you can see, the soccer pitch is not quite as manicured as the VR Polo Club in Bangkok where the King’s Cup was played last year. However, it is unlikely we will face a flooded field every day as we did there.
Jason, captain of The Elephant Story team, and I recently had dinner with Darren Buckley who is the captain of his Citi team. Darren threw us a scare in that he is going out to all of the Citi locations around the world, most notably Argentina, to locate high goal horse polo players to join his team. As it stands now, we have a bit of an international event as seven countries are represented in the membership of the four teams before Darren brings in the Argentina contingent. However, as shown below, one should not discount the home court team advantage.
Therefore, hop on a short flight from Bangkok to Buriram, grab a car to Ban Ta Klang and join us for what will be a very unique experience. The elephants are waiting to greet you!