Andrew Williams at Thoroughbred Park, where he will hold polo clinics early next year. Photo: Melissa Adams

Picking a winner at Thoroughbred Park won't be restricted to the horse first past the post anymore.

Scoring goals will also be on the agenda as polo, known as the sport of kings, makes a majestic return to Canberra next year.

The initiative is the brainchild of Andrew Williams, who is one of Australia's highest-rated professional polo players and is the senior coach for the New South Wales Polo Association.

Williams runs the Willo Polo Club at Richmond on the outskirts of Sydney and has more than 20 years of experience in the sport.

"We'll be bringing polo back to Canberra," Williams said. "Polo was here 15 or 20 years ago and we're trying to resurrect it.

"The main catalyst for me to do it is I come down here and coach the pony club kids, so they wrote to the polo association and asked if I could coach at their zone, where they have 200-odd kids and they loved it so much.

"Some of those kids travelled to Sydney to have a go on a proper field and I just thought it was madness [not having polo in Canberra]."

Williams said Canberra has the highest rate for individual horse ownership in Australia, leading him to believe there could be sufficient interest.

Polo is played on a grass field up to 270m by 150m with each team consisting of four riders and their mounts.

Players score points by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled mallet.

The game is played professionally in 16 countries and originated in Iran in sixth century BC.

Canberra Racing Club chief executive Peter Stubbs said having polo at the venue was a great way to utilise the extra space.

"It gives us the opportunity to diversify and there could be some commercial opportunities there as well," Stubbs said.

"It gives us the opportunity to make use of and, perhaps in the future, develop unused land in the centre of the racecourse."

Williams said the middle of Thoroughbred Park inside the racetrack was big enough for two full-sized polo fields.

"February and March will be learn to play polo clinics and you can do either an individual lesson for one hour, or a group lesson for six hours," Williams said.

"You get a taste of polo and see whether or not you enjoy it.

"I don't know if it's as expensive as everyone makes out, certainly at the higher level it costs a lot of money to compete, but at a lower level, anyone can do it."