Tag archives: polo club

The annual Montecito Motor Classic, going into its eighth year, has officially outgrown its Coast Village birthplace and has moved to the larger venue of the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, 3375 Foothill Road, Carpinteria (805-684-6683). Without the move, it’s safe to say, there would have been no car show this year. Damage to […]

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 […]

It was a record turnout when the Santa Barbara Polo Club held its annual Belmond El Encanto Robert Skene Trophy final between undefeated BenSoleimani.com, last year’s runners up, and banker Henry Walker‘s FMB Too! Henry tied the game with only a few minutes of the hotly contested 16-goal match remaining. Just as overtime loomed, Felipe […]

Polo patron Justin Klentner and his interior designer wife Amanda Masters opened the doors of Klentner Ranch, their sprawling Carpinteria estate, for a 160-guest Summer Social fundraiser for the Polo Training Center of Santa Barbara, which was expected to raise around $100,000 to support activities and upgrade the facility’s training arena, including lighting for nighttime […]

It was a very in-tents occasion when Montecito dynamic duo, Justin and Mindy Mahy, hosted a boffo bash to mark their New Zealand company Kopu Sparkling Water’s high goal challenge at the Santa Barbara Polo Club. Justin’s mother, Pam, and father, Arthur, flew in for the occasion from Auckland on the country’s North Island, for […]

It was a first for the Santa Barbara Polo Club when the Lucchese USPA Intra-Circuit Tournament was played at the Carpinteria equestrian paradise with six teams competing for the much sought after trophy, as well as $50,000 in prize money. “This has certainly never happened before,” says club manager David Sigman. “The United States Polo […]

Having launched her official Santa Barbara Polo Club ring to reflect the long history of the Pacific Coast Open last year, the Carpinteria organization’s official jeweler Tara Gray, a former Miss Alabama, has designed a completely new ring for the 2019 season. The latest bling has a new round face featuring 110 natural fancy black […]

How ironic that rain impacted on a tournament at the Santa Barbara Polo Club sponsored by a water company. But that was the case when it staged the KOPU Lisle Nixon Memorial match, underwritten by KOPU Sparkling Water, a New Zealand company owned by Montecito twosome Justin and Mindy Mahy. Dire weather predictions meant the […]

With news that Prince Harry, wife Meghan, and newly-born son, Archie, might possibly be purchasing a second home in Los Angeles, the rumor mill has been running at full throttle. The polo-playing Duke of Sussex participates regularly with Santa Barbara Polo Club player, Nacho Figueras, the Argentinian Ralph Lauren Polo model, who competes on the […]

The fields are impeccably groomed, the horses are ready, and the best of the best competitors are heading to our rarefied enclave for the hotly anticipated opening of the Santa Barbara Polo Club’s 108th season on May 5. The season at the Engel & Volkers stadium will feature an exhilarating summer of action-packed tournaments and […]

Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club has added a new tennis pro to its talented staff. Born and raised in Scotland, Nikki Slater grew up playing with Wimbledon champ Andy Murray and his brother, Jamie, as her coach was the ace racketeers’ mother, Judy. She graduated from Florida State University where she was number one […]

More than 20 student artists were honored by the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara during a presentation and reception at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, with each of them receiving a $2,500 scholarship and their artwork exhibited in the museum’s Family Resource Center. “Much of their work reveals a remarkable maturity and sureness of […]

After 33 years as controller at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, Debby Bernal is riding off into the sunset. Debby, who is being replaced by Susie Banda-Avila, was presented with an undisclosed check to be used for her forthcoming world travels by club manager, David Sigman, at the recent Fire and Ice gala. Storied Pasts […]

It was running hot and cold when the Santa Barbara Polo Club hosted a sold-out Fire and Ice party. More than 185 guests scoffed and bopped the night away when temperatures dropped into the 50s, the winds blew and the rain, briefly, poured. Fortunately a tent, with heat lamps, had been erected a few feet […]

High-goal season at the Santa Barbara Polo Club ended on a soaringly high note when longtime patron Justin Klentner‘s Klentner Ranch team hoisted the 109-year-old Silver Air Pacific Coast Open trophy, the most prestigious tournament on the Left Coast, for the first time. Although Justin, who has had his team for six years, was unable […]

Santa Barbara Polo Club’s hallowed Holden Field was turned into an outdoor planetarium when it threw an Under the Stars bash for 200 guests with organizers from the local 63-year-old astronomical unit, part of the Natural History Museum, which does 200 events annually showing off the stars above, just two days before a full moon. […]

Montecito has always been an integral part of the Santa Barbara Studio Artists (SBSA) Open Studios tour. But not so much this year. The annual Labor Day weekend event when local artists who are members of the organization welcome guests into their working home studios or off-site locations has just one site for visitors to […]

Santa Barbara Polo Club president John Muse opened the doors of his magnificent Carpinteria beach house to host a fund-raising dinner bash for 60 guests. The contemporary home, with 120 feet of Pacific frontage, took two years to build and is worthy of a spread in Architectural Digest. The fun fete raised more than $50,000 […]

Santa Barbara Polo Club hosted its first Sip and Shop event for 250 guests next to the hallowed Holden Field. With seven vendors and a stall providing Moet & Chandon’s new champagne – with a slightly higher sugar content that can be served over ice – the fun fest was the brainchild of Kathryn Lenihan, […]