Polo’s lessons for Argentina
马球产业能给阿根廷什么启示？
报道从布宜诺斯艾利斯附近的马球场写起，串起骑手、育种、出口、技术与外国投资，解释一个产业为何能在整体经济起伏中保持活力。贯穿全文的马术比喻，让产业分析带着轻松的评论语气。
原文来源：The Economist
学习目标
- 串起资源、人才、育种和出口的产业链
- 区分克隆马、克隆马后代和基因编辑马
- 读懂定语从句、倒装与分词压缩
- 识别马术词汇中的经济含义与双关
中英对照阅读
“TWENTY FIVE years ago I came here for the first time,” says Maximiliano Fernández. “There was nothing.” Now the area between the towns of Pilar and General Rodríguez, a strip of land 50km west of Buenos Aires, is packed with polo clubs, stables and estates. Every scrap of farmland is being bought up and transformed into pristine polo fields. Argentina’s polo world is “a bubble” within the country, says Mr Fernández, who manages a team: it has its own economy. And that economy is world-beating.
“二十五年前，我第一次来到这里，”Maximiliano Fernández说。 “那时什么都没有。” 如今，皮拉尔和罗德里格斯将军城之间、布宜诺斯艾利斯以西50公里的这片狭长地带，挤满了马球俱乐部、马厩和庄园。 每一小块农地都正被买下，改造成整洁如新的马球场。 管理着一支球队的Fernández先生说，阿根廷的马球世界是国内的一个“气泡”：它有自己的经济体系。 而这套经济体系在世界上首屈一指。
Polo—hockey on horseback—is purportedly the world’s oldest team sport. An early version was played in Persia in the sixth century BC. The modern game was formalised by British officers in India and then galloped around the empire. It became a sport of kings, taken up by elites in Europe, the United States and more recently the Gulf states. Yet Argentina came to dominate the global scene, even as the rest of its economy was in a shambles.
马球——在马背上打的曲棍球——据称是世界上最古老的团队运动。 公元前6世纪，波斯就已有一种早期形式的马球。 现代马球的规则由驻印度的英国军官确立，随后像骏马一样奔向帝国各地。 它成了王公贵族的运动，被欧洲、美国以及近些年海湾国家的精英们接受。 然而，即便阿根廷其他经济领域一片混乱，该国仍逐渐主宰了全球马球界。
Like any fledgling industry, it helps to have the raw materials. Horses had long thrived on the Pampas, central Argentina’s vast grasslands. They attracted gauchos, the local version of cowboys. Polo, when it arrived, fit naturally with the abundance of cheap horses, skilled riders, flat land and agreeable weather. Argentine players were soon reckoned the world’s best, and remain so: 27 of the top 30 professionals today are from the country. They sustain a service-based economy in which rich foreigners hire them to help win trophies.
对于一个初生的产业而言，拥有原材料总是有帮助的。 马匹早已在阿根廷中部广袤的潘帕斯草原上繁衍兴盛。 它们吸引了当地被称为高乔人的牛仔。 马球传入时，当地充足的廉价马匹、技艺娴熟的骑手、平坦的土地和宜人的气候，都与这项运动天然契合。 阿根廷球员很快便被视为世界最佳，至今仍然如此：如今排名前30的职业球员中，有27人来自该国。 他们支撑起一套以服务为基础的经济体系，富有的外国人雇用他们，帮助赢得奖杯。
Industry soon followed. Landed Argentine families have built formidable breeding programmes which pump out the world’s finest polo horses (or ponies, as they are known). And these products lead the field: of the 1,140 horses that competed for the Queen’s Cup in Britain last year, 1,000 were of Argentine bloodlines, according to the country’s polo association.
产业生产很快也发展起来。 拥有土地的阿根廷家族建立了实力雄厚的育种体系，源源不断地培育出世界一流的马球用马，这些马通常被称作“ponies”。 这些产品也领跑同行：据该国马球协会称，去年在英国参加女王杯的1,140匹马中，有1,000匹拥有阿根廷血统。
By maximising its competitive advantage in human—and equine—capital, Argentina’s polo economy has enjoyed an export-led boom. Between January and November last year Argentina shipped 2,900 horses (three-quarters of them polo ponies) to 38 countries. The country is the world’s leading exporter.
阿根廷将人力资本——以及马匹资本——方面的竞争优势发挥到最大，使马球经济经历了一轮出口带动的繁荣。 去年1月至11月，阿根廷向38个国家运出了2,900匹马，其中四分之三是马球用马。 在这一领域，该国是世界头号出口者。
To keep their noses ahead, Argentine breeders and businessmen have invested in R&D and pioneered the cloning of ponies. A breakthrough came in 2010, when a clone of Dolfina Cuartetera, ranked the best pony in Argentina’s Hall of Fame, sold for a record $800,000. Now many are copies of past Argentine greats. Some breeders are attempting to trot a step further in order to protect their intellectual property, selling only the foals of clones, rather than the clones themselves.
为了保持领先优势，阿根廷的育种者和商人投资研发，并率先开展马球用马的克隆。 2010年出现了一次突破：被阿根廷马球名人堂评为最佳马球用马的Dolfina Cuartetera，其一匹克隆马以创纪录的80万美元售出。 如今，许多马都是阿根廷昔日名马的复制品。 一些育种者正尝试再向前迈一步，以保护自己的知识产权：他们只出售克隆马繁育的后代（马驹），而不出售克隆马本身。
Regulators have enabled the innovation: the polo association has resisted red tape and embraced technology even as thoroughbred horse-racing has prohibited it. But there is a limit. When Kheiron, an Argentine biotech company, unveiled the world’s first gene-edited horses in 2024, they were barred from competition. After all, such tech could one day enable rivals abroad to engineer horses that outrun even Argentina’s famed bloodlines.
监管者为这项创新创造了条件：马球协会抵制繁文缛节，接纳技术，而纯种赛马运动则禁止了这种技术。 不过，这种接纳也有界限。 当阿根廷生物技术公司Kheiron于2024年公布世界首批基因编辑马时，这些马被禁止参加比赛。 毕竟，这类技术有朝一日可能让海外竞争者培育出跑得更快的马，连阿根廷那些著名血统的马都能超过。
At the same time as Argentina’s economy bucks and rears (shrinking by 2.5% in February, growing by 2.8% in March then contracting by 1.5% in April), the polo world seems unbothered. That is thanks, in part, to a steady flow of foreign direct investment. Rich foreigners, known as patrons, bring money aplenty into Argentina’s polo bubble. They buy land, hire players and haggle over horses, creating a trickle-down economy for grooms, farriers, trainers, vets and architects.
就在阿根廷经济像马一样蹦跳、扬起前蹄之时——2月萎缩2.5%，3月增长2.8%，4月又收缩1.5%——马球世界似乎不受影响。 这部分得益于稳定流入的外国直接投资。 那些被称作“赞助人”的富有外国人，把大笔资金带进阿根廷的马球气泡。 他们买地、雇球员、为马匹讨价还价，由此形成一种收益向下游传递的经济体系，让马夫、钉蹄铁匠、驯马师、兽医和建筑师获得生意。
Sustained growth has been the result. Two decades ago Juan Martín Batistuta, an equine vet, worked almost entirely on racehorses; today he works almost entirely on ponies. “I’ve never been busier,” he says. Nor is the boom confined to Buenos Aires. “From Córdoba to Patagonia, all over Argentina you have so many more clubs,” says Mr Fernández. The country now has 177. The sport’s profile is rising globally, too. A Netflix documentary released in 2024 and a broadcasting deal with ESPN have brought it to new audiences.
结果便是持续增长。 二十年前，马科兽医Juan Martín Batistuta几乎只为赛马看病；如今，他几乎只服务于马球用马。 “我从来没有这么忙过，”他说。 而且，繁荣也不限于布宜诺斯艾利斯。 “从科尔多瓦到巴塔哥尼亚，阿根廷各地的俱乐部都多了很多，”Fernández先生说。 该国如今共有177家。 这项运动在全球的知名度也正在提高。 2024年推出的一部Netflix纪录片，以及与ESPN达成的一项转播协议，把它带到了新的观众面前。
The approval ratings of Javier Milei, Argentina’s president and a polo fan, are suffering as he attempts to reset the country’s economy. He might glance at proceedings in Pilar: a world-beating industry making the most of its competitive advantage, attracting foreign investment and adopting new technologies to bolster its position as the world’s leading exporter. An ideal remedy, perhaps, for a long face.
阿根廷总统、马球爱好者哈维尔·米莱在尝试重整国家经济时，支持率正在下滑。 他或许可以看看皮拉尔正在发生的事：一个世界领先的产业，充分利用竞争优势，吸引外国投资，并采用新技术，以巩固其作为世界头号出口者的地位。 这也许是让愁眉苦脸舒展开来的理想良方。