Tag archives: Santa Barbara Polo Club

Trophy Trot
By Richard Mineards   |   July 4, 2019

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 […]

Polo Bling
By Richard Mineards   |   June 13, 2019

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 […]

Rain Check
By Richard Mineards   |   June 6, 2019

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 […]

Polo Season Sizzles Right Out of the Gate
By Richard Mineards   |   May 16, 2019

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 […]

Let the Games Begin
By Richard Mineards   |   April 18, 2019

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 […]

Bon Voyage
By Richard Mineards   |   December 13, 2018

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 […]

Weatherproof Winterland
By Richard Mineards   |   December 6, 2018

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 […]

Justin Time: Klentner Ranch Wins
By Richard Mineards   |   September 6, 2018

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 […]

Fluidity, Frolicking, and Flow
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 6, 2018

“There is a thin semantic line separating weird and beautiful. And that line is covered in jellyfish.” So said choreographer Doug Elkins at the Lobero Theater a couple of weeks ago, perhaps answering a question posed by one of the members of the Friday Club. Or more than likely not. Elkins is the high-energy, self-described […]

Golden Holden
By Richard Mineards   |   August 30, 2018

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. […]

Labor of Love: Studios Open for Tour
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 30, 2018

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 […]

Muse News
By Tim Buckley   |   August 23, 2018

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 […]

Sip-Top Condition
By Richard Mineards   |   August 16, 2018

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, […]

Hall of a Time
By Richard Mineards   |   August 2, 2018

It was a very in-tents occasion when the Belmond El Encanto hosted a socially gridlocked lunch at the Santa Barbara Polo Club when the tony hostelry held its annual Robert Skene Trophy match when the Lucchese team beat Restoration Hardware 14-13, thanks to three consecutive goals by Jeff Hall. More than 350 guests attended the […]

Lady of the Rings
By Richard Mineards   |   July 26, 2018

Football may have its large and impressive Super Bowl rings, but now the refined game of polo has its own equivalent. A unique 14-carat white gold ring, featuring the logo of the Santa Barbara Polo Club, with an eagle carved into the front and back of the ring’s mounting, and 109 hand-set natural fancy black […]

Baker’s Glide and Joy
By Richard Mineards   |   June 28, 2018

Santa Barbara Polo Club player Judith Baker has been flying high! To celebrate her 75th birthday the bubbly Brit, who I have known for more than a decade, took a 3,000-feet, 30-minute paragliding flight above the exquisitely manicured oceanside Carpinteria club after participating in a tournament playing for the World Gym team. “The idea originally […]

On the Air
By Richard Mineards   |   June 7, 2018

A new local TV show has launched – at the gallop. Santa Barbara Polo Life, co-hosted by former TV anchor Charles Ward, longtime Texan promoter at the SB Polo Club, and Tara Gray, who has spent more than 10,000 hours on air, started taping the weekly 30-minute series at the TVSB studios on Salinas Street […]

On the Money
By Richard Mineards   |   May 31, 2018

The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, which since its founding in 1962 has awarded a handsome $108 million to more than 50,000 county students, marked its annual gift-giving with a dinner for 245 guests at the SB Museum of History. This year, $8.3 million was awarded to 2,620 students in ceremonies in Santa Maria and […]

High Horse
By Richard Mineards   |   May 17, 2018

Santa Barbara Polo Club opened its 107th season with a bang when former patron Andy Busch and his wife, Kim, threw a bash for his new Folded Hills 15-acre vineyard in Santa Ynez. Andy, whose Grants Farm team used to be a regular feature at the Carpinteria club, bought the 600-acre ranch some years back […]

Talkin Business
By Richard Mineards   |   May 3, 2018

Foodbank of Santa Barbara County chief executive Erik Talkin has published his first book, Hunger into Health, with a foreword by Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges. The former London filmmaker, who made movies in the 1990s starring Helena Bonham-Carter and Parker Posey, worked in in a community soup kitchen for six years before heading the food bank […]