Legacy in Motion: Inside Johor’s Super Crown Polo Debut

They call polo the sport of kings, which is why it was apt that the inaugural Johor Super Crown Polo Tournament 2026 took place at the vast green expanse of Istana Pasir Pelangi’s Royal Polo Grounds recently. The venue spoke for itself, commanding admiration and awe for visitors even before a single polo mallet was swung. Here, the three polo fields alone totalled over 30 acres, about the size of 17 regulation-sized football fields, an emerald swath into the horizon.

This endless stretch of green is a worthy analogy for the history of the Royal Johor Polo Club, which was established over a century ago, cementing it as one of the oldest and most prestigious polo clubs in Asia.

The final day trophy-deciding event kicked off with a majestic combined performance by the well-drilled Johor Military Forces and Royal Malaysian Police brass bands, marching to rapier-sharp cadence and thrilling the audience with renditions of contemporary tunes.

How this six-day event came to be was through a shared vision between His Royal Highness, Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, The Regent of Johor, and polo icon Pablo ‘Polito’ Pieres, to create what would currently be the largest and highest handicap polo tournament ever hosted in Malaysia and the Asian region. “Pablo is a good friend of mine,” HRH Tunku Mahkota Ismail said regarding the conception of the event, “and one day we decided to host the best polo tournament in Asia.”

The resulting six-day event, themed around ‘Legacy in Motion’, immediately catapulted the Johor Super Crown Polo Tournament into the upper echelons of the annual polo calendar with its 22 total team handicap. Each team of four players would thus be composed of players at the height of their powers (10 being the highest handicap a single player can have with most elite professional players ranging in the five to nine handicap).

This high handicap bar necessitated an invitational field comprising high-level polo professionals with star turns for each of the five elite teams, among them, Pablo MacDonough as the sole 10-handicap player among the players, Nacho Figueras—dubbed the David Beckham of polo for his model looks—and South African Nachi du Plessis who made history as the first of his country to reach a nine-goal handicap in Argentina.

Among the national and regional names who took to the playing field were Asian Games medallist and 3Q Equestrian Centre director Dato’ Quzier Ambak, CEO and president of DigitalBridge Marc Ganzi, Korea Polo Club owner David Ko and Colonel Ravi Rathore, former captain of the Indian national polo team.

This year’s Johor Super Crown tournament, which took place on the heels of the Gold Cup in Sotogrande, Spain and preceding the Jockey Club Open in Buenos Aires, Argentina, meant that advanced planning was required to mount all the players—where each polo match requires at least 32 polo ponies or more to be rotated and kept fresh throughout.

To do this, the Johor Super Crown tournament achieved the historic feat of mounting all five teams, something which has very rarely been done, by provisioning 190 horses in total, from the royal stables and the purchase of over 100 trained polo ponies from Argentina.

It must have been a daunting task to plan for such a spectacle—caring for 190 horses alone would have proved challenging—yet for those in attendance, little of that complexity was made apparent. It’s a demonstration that with the right combination of expertise and resources, even something of this magnitude can appear effortless. The organising team also took some pointers from major polo events in the Middle East, studying the different approaches to staging the sport, before refining, adapting and even improving those learnings for the Johor Super Crown Polo Tournament, with grand pavilions and elegant gazebos constructed for spectators, and seamless programming leading into each match.

HRH Tunku Mahkota Ismail himself stated his appreciation for the elements beyond the sporting aspect. “I’m also delighted how we organised the event—the infrastructure and logistics—everything went smoothly, and I’m very happy with that,” he said.

One example of this meticulous planning was through the carefully coordinated fleet of royal automobiles shuttling dignitaries and guests to the Royal Pavilion—an event in itself with an extraordinary display of automotive craftsmanship and engineering.

HRH Tunku Mahkota Ismail himself arrived in a bespoke two-toned Bugatti Mistral on Day One, and piloted a Tailor-Made Ferrari SF90 on another. The final day also saw the appearance of the ultra-exclusive Rolls-Royce Boat Tail in its soft rose and oyster garb, a unique body colour which debuted at the 2022 Concorso D’Eleganza, Villa d’Este.

At this invitation-only event, many of the country’s leaders, leading corporate elite, celebrities, and sports figures were in attendance, enjoying the matches from the al fresco gazebos and in the comfort of the air-conditioned pavilions.

The royal hospitality extended to the food as well, with caviar and fresh oysters featuring among the menu selections. It was another small but telling detail that showed the level of thought that had gone into the tournament, especially when catering to over 1,000 guests over six days. This selection was juxtaposed with laksa Johor, a dish that hails from its namesake, and you could not ask for a better combination of local representation and extravagant fare.

On the field itself, the high-octane action came with every chukka, with air dribbles, deceptive neck shots and ride-offs eliciting gasps from the watching audience. The horse substitutions happened quickly enough that one would not even know they’d happened, if not for the commentator clueing them in on the key points of the matches. The action on the field would be what drew the attention of an engaged crowd with feats ranging from Pieres’ juggling of the ball to HRH Tunku Mahkota Ismail’s all-out sprints to beat his rivals for the ball.

Just like the event’s infrastructure, food, and logistics, the most remarkable part on the field wasn’t what you could see, but what you couldn’t: HRH Tunku Mahkota Ismail playing a commanding game and scoring a double hat-trick of his team’s 10 goals in the final, which ended 10-7 in favour of the Royal Johor team against Temasek, despite playing on with a heavily strapped broken right hand. (The rules of polo explicitly require you to hold the mallet in your right hand).

HRH Tunku Mahkota Ismail’s performance through the pain barrier would see him garlanded with the Most Valuable Player award, while his steed named Poliya Cara Pálida was bequeathed with the Best Playing Pony award.

A final presentation to the winning Royal Johor team was the pièce de résistance, the Johor Super Crown. This trophy, crafted by Royal Insignia, is a top-tier emblem of victory on its own, consisting of fine silver, 24k gold, lapis lazuli of deep royal blue and gemstones of sapphires, peridots and garnets.

While claiming the trophy must have been a joy, one could imagine HRH Tunku Mahkota Ismail enjoying a deeper sense of triumph that resulted from overcoming both physical obstacles and putting together a sporting event of such scale.

In his pre-event remarks, HRH Tunku Mahkota Ismail also spoke of Johor’s strategic location, offering natural landscapes for leisure seekers, rapid transformation in high-tech and knowledge-based sector investments, and its proximity to waterways from the Straits of Malacca to the South China Sea. More than a polo tournament, this event took on a unique lustre of being the place for dealmaking, with Invest Johor—the state’s investment promotion agency—providing on-ground support and advisory for invited guests across the tournament days.

After the trophy presentation and as the festivities came to a close, HRH Tunku Mahkota Ismail was in a pensive mood at the Royal Pavilion, reflecting on the completion of the inaugural Johor Super Crown polo tournament. “Now that it has happened, the challenge is to improve on a yearly basis,” he says. “We don’t fear the challenge, in fact it’s something we look forward to.

Photography by Johor Southern Tigers and Royal Press Office