Tag archives: polo club

A sea of colorful hats proliferated in the stands at the Santa Barbara Polo Club when, for the 15th consecutive year, I had the onerous task of judging the mélange of magnificent millinery. Sorting out the torrent of tony tête toppers and choosing three winners was not the easiest of jobs given the sheer number […]

American automotive designer, author, and photojournalist Peter Brock will be the honoree this year at the Montecito Motor Classic at the Santa Barbara Polo Club in October, I can exclusively reveal. Brock is best known for his work on the Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe and the Corvette Stingray. His accomplishments have been honored with numerous […]

Patricia Westley, daughter of the Santa Barbara Polo Club’s John Westley, who used to manage the polo training school, had just scored the experience of a lifetime two months before Russia invaded Ukraine. The Kiwi-American opera singer had won an Atkins Foundation fellowship to work at the historic Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, finding an […]

A sold-out crowd of 400, many of them in tony tête toppers, descended on the sprawling Piocho Ranch home of the Happy Canyon Vineyard, owned by Santa Barbara Polo Club billionaire patron Tom Barrack, for the 10th anniversary Santa Ynez Valley Polo Classic that raised more than $150,000 for People Helping People, a Solvang-based organization […]

Social gridlock reigned when, after a two-week hiatus, Santa Barbara Polo Club launched its highly anticipated high goal season with four top teams playing in the roster at the Carpinteria equine paradise through September. The 20-goal culminates at the end of August with the Netjets Pacific Coast Open, the biggest tournament on the Left Coast, […]

Prince Harry may not be appearing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with his actress wife Meghan Markle after the Trooping of the Color ceremony next month, but he was definitely front and center at the Santa Barbara Polo Club playing in the final of the Folded Hills Pope Challenge final on Sunday. The closely […]

Santa Barbara Polo Club member Jef and Katie Graham opened the doors of their charming Montecito Ranch home for a gala for the ten-year-old club training center attended by 120 guests, raising more than $50,000. Center president Rhys Williams emceed the sunset soirée with volunteers from the Westmont College and UCSB polo teams. Jeff Scheraga, […]

Call it the Prince Harry effect! Since it was announced that Queen Elizabeth’s 37-year-old grandson would be playing regularly in the 12-goal matches at the Santa Barbara Polo Club with his old friend Argentinian Ralph Lauren Polo model Nacho Figueras, the club’s telephone has been ringing off the hook and the website deluged with viewers. […]

Santa Barbara Polo Club is now by royal appointment! Prince Harry is going to be playing regularly on the Los Padres team with his good friend, Argentinian Ralph Lauren Polo model Nacho Figueras, in the 12-goal tournament at the lush Carpinteria equestrian facility.  “Prince Harry is an avid polo enthusiast and player, and has played […]

After nearly two years of limited access to the public, the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club is back at the gallop! Opening day is May 1 for a riveting season of action-packed games and exhilarating tournaments. “We have a record number of teams participating at every level, with many of the world’s most talented […]

Philip Stein doesn’t fit the standard mold of a polo club chef. For starters, his warm and friendly personality is devoid of the stuffy airs that one might assume is mandatory among those in close orbit to the regal sport. Now the Fieldside Grill’s executive chef, he was completely unfamiliar with the game – and […]

Horsepower of a very different kind was on display at the Santa Barbara Polo Club when four newly imported Bentley Flying Spur hybrid cars were trucked up from the O’Gara Coach Company in Westlake for three days for members to test drive. The 536 horsepower cars, which have a top speed of 177 mph, run […]

The lush fields of the Santa Barbara Polo Club were filled with competitors of a very different kind when high school age lacrosse players descended on the Carpinteria equestrian facility for a two-day Showdown Series organized by Cal Coast Sports Ventures. The popular annual event, which was last held two years ago because of the […]

Horsepower of a very different kind took over the Santa Barbara Polo Club when the 9th annual Montecito Motor Classic, with more than 200 exotic and luxury cars on display, was staged on the expansive fields. “We could have had a great many more but had to cut off the applications given fire regulations,” says […]

More than 200 exotic and historic automobiles will be participating in the ninth annual Montecito Motor Classic at the Santa Barbara Polo Club on Sunday, which founder Dolores Johnson tells me is a record. This year’s theme for the free-admission event, presented by the Armand Hammer Foundation, is “The Concept Car,” which will focus on […]

An accomplished polo player, Prince Harry has been honing his mallet skills “stick and balling” at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, I can exclusively reveal. The Duke of Sussex, 37, who lives with his wife, Meghan Markle, at Riven Rock, just a short gallop from the Carpinteria equestrian facility, is following in the stirrup-steps of […]

One of the newest spots to eat in town is a longstanding destination all its own. The Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club is one of the oldest of its kind in the U.S., and its polo season, which runs May through October and lures a sophisticated crowd to both play and watch from all […]

For the 15th year my millinery skills, garnered from attending the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, England, where outrageous hats are de rigueur for ladies attending the centuries’ old races attended by Queen Elizabeth, for more than four decades, were called on by the Santa Barbara Polo Club to judge the annual hat contest during the […]

Among the unexpected silver linings of the pandemic? The fact that the appeal of living in Santa Barbara’s South Coast has surged, and surged in a big way. An enclave like Montecito is not all that far from the urban sprawl of Los Angeles, where a pandemic-inspired exodus continues. But, as so many residents and […]

On a deeply personal note, I remember Charles Ward, the longtime Texan publicist and promoter for the Santa Barbara Polo Club, who left us for more heavenly pastures at the age of 80 in his hometown of Dallas. We first met in 2007 when I moved to our rarefied enclave from Hancock Park in Los […]