Bank Bash

Having won polo’s 55-year-old America Cup three times in the last four years, it seems appropriate that former Santa Barbara Polo Club president and banker Dan Walker should now be sponsoring the three-week annual 16-goal tournament that runs through August 11.

To mark the occasion, he hosted a bustling reception at his Farmers & Merchants Bank branch, just a tiara’s toss from State Street, for 60 guests, including Nolan Nicholson, Tara Gray, Charles Ward, Katie Turpin, Richard and Annette Caleel, Rhys Williams, Mindy Denson, David Sigman, and Wiley Uretz.

Another Flip 

Montecito TV talk show host and serial real estate flipper Ellen DeGeneres had just listed a ten-acre, three-bedroom, three-bathroom 6,000 sq.ft. Santa Barbara property for $7.95 million.

The Toro Canyon house, with a lagoon-inspired pool and waterfall, was built in 1917 and has been fully renovated.

Riskin Partners is handling the sale.

Women at the Top

TV entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey is one of the world’s most admired women, according to a new survey.

Montecito’s most famous resident is ranked Number Two, with former First Lady Michelle Obama topping the list, with actress-activist Angelina Jolie at Number Three and Queen Elizabeth at Number Four, according to YouGov.

Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates is Number One on the men’s list, his fifth consecutive year, with former President Barack Obama at Number Two, the Dalai Lama at Number Eight, and Russian President Vladimir Putin at Number 10.

More than 42,000 people were polled in 41 countries…

Royal Writer?

Prince Harry‘s wife, former actress Meghan Markle, is in discussions with my former New York Magazine colleague Anna Wintour, to write a regular column on her charity work for Conde Nast’s fashion bible Vogue.

The column will run in both British and American Vogue.

“She’ll be a contributing editor on a few fabulous stories about causes near and dear to her, and it may become a regular column,” says one source.

Both Buckingham Palace and Conde Nast have declined to comment, but I know hear the Dutchess of Sussex will be guest editor for Vogue’s bumper September’s issue.

Rest in Peace

On a personal note, I mark the passing of the irrepressible horsewoman Marylou Whitney at her home in Saratoga, New York, aged 93.

I would often see the widow of Cornelius “Sonny” Vanderbilt Whitney in the Royal Enclosure at Royal Ascot, with then husband John Hendrickson, who she was married to for nearly 22 years.

Her death came just two weeks before an official induction ceremony at the Racing Hall of Fame as Pillar of the Turf, an honor reserved for thoroughbred racing’s greats.

At one time the Whitneys had seven homes, including a horse farm in Kentucky, a New York townhouse, a villa in France, a 51,000-acre camp in the Adirondacks and a home in the then-faded Victorian Age resort town of Saratoga Springs.

Marylou, a longtime winter resident of Palm Beach, Florida, lost no time in revitalizing the historic community, founding the National Museum of Dance, which is named for the couple, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Saratoga Hospital, the Saratoga YMCA, and numerous race-season charity events for which she served as chairwoman.

But it was as a horsewoman that she shone, having as much expertise on equestrian bloodlines as Queen Elizabeth, and becoming the only woman to breed and own a Kentucky Oaks winner in 2003. She was also elected to the Jockey Club in 2011.

One of thoroughbred racing’s greatest ambassadors and a unique and gracious individual.

Sightings: Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman noshing at Pane e Vino… Oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau checking out Intermezzo… Rosewood Miramar owner Rick Caruso, with his entourage, sashaying down Coast Village Road

Pip! Pip!