AIKEN - For the traditionalists, it didn't seem right at first. The third leg of the Triple Crown was reserved for harness racing.
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That's how it had been for years. And polo just sounded awkward.
People wouldn't know how to keep score, critics said. Fans would grow bored, they scoffed.
In the end, however, people turned out to watch polo in 2004. About 5,000 spectators, to be exact.
The event's sponsors at the University of South Carolina Aiken athletics department say they expect just as many fans, if not more, this year.
"You've got a certain population that's always attended the Triple Crown," Athletics Director Randy Warrick said. "You've also got your diehard people who support it. And you've got a lot of people who had never seen it and were curious."
The event has a format change this year. Organizers are dumping the three-game round-robin format for a one-game, winner-take-all match.
"We thought that things kind of dragged a little last year," Mr. Warrick said. "It got to be a long afternoon."
Part of the plan also is to improve the quality of polo at the event. Aiken has become a hotbed for some of the sport's best players, but many of them are playing in other parts of the country when the match is staged.
Some polo observers viewed last year's inaugural event as a learning experience, a slowed-down version of top-flight competition.
"They did it that way so that people could keep up with it," said fan George Bush, who works as a paramedic for Aiken Polo Club matches. "I'd like to see polo get even bigger than it is."
The sport has been played in Aiken since 1882. Though its popularity has ebbed and flowed over the years, the city has experienced a resurgence of sorts with players from around the country and world relocating to the area.
The list includes some of the sport's big names - Matias Magrini, Owen Rinehart and Adam Snow.
There also are enthusiasts such as Charlie Bostwick, the president of the Aiken Polo Club, who grew up playing the sport in Aiken.
It came as no surprise to Mr. Bostwick that spectators enjoyed last year's event.
"The polo game is something you can watch the whole time you're there," he said. "There's more action (than with horse racing)."
The pomp and glitz that accompany the sport don't hurt, either.
"A lot of it has to do with just going out and watching something they've never seen before," Mr. Bostwick said.
The city's polo club routinely plays Sunday matches at the Whitney, Winthrop and Powderhouse fields in and near Aiken's historic horse districts. The games are sparsely attended, compared with the Triple Crown event.
Mr. Bostwick says the disparity comes down to publicity. He illustrates his point by comparing Aiken polo with polo he played in rural New York.
Even though matches were being played in a town of about 800, crowds swelled into the thousands and people drove for hours to watch because the events were well publicized.
Attendance levels easily could reach that height in Aiken, Mr. Bostwick said.
"You're not going to find any better polo in your back yard anywhere," he said.
Reach Josh Gelinas at (803) 648-1395, ext. 113, or josh.gelinas@augustachronicle.com.
