Polo Hamptons — It’s BACK
Take Uber. Buy tickets online, because none will be sold at the event. Wear a hat, a big one. It’s too late to buy a ticket for the swanky Christie Brinkley-hosted event on Sunday.
Instagram
Even though the match begins at 4 pm, people will be arriving early because they want to see each other. This is a big social event in the Hamptons. The only teams we know about are Surf Lodge from Montauk and Equuleus from Water Mill and Wellington. Those two teams are probably at the opposite ends of the scale in terms of polo expertise.
The forecast is for partly cloudy skies, and temperatures topping out at 82 degrees F. (28 C.)
Christie Brinkley is there every year, usually sponsored by someone. Last year it was Social Life magazine. (Instagram)
The cabanas and tables for 10 (which were $3,700, including the open bar and food) sold out early for Saturday, July 20. Somehow every0ne decides that this one is the important match and the second one, next weekend, doesn’t matter as much. If you are really desperate to be there on July 20 you could let your fingers do the work and call around to see if someone you know has extra space at their table.
What with people flying off to Paris and St Barths and breaking a wrist and what not … you never know.
Maria Fishel, Katlean de Monchy, Gilda Sacasa, (standing) Ruth Miller, at last year’s Polo Hamptons
And there is always next weekend, the match on July 27. Right? Sales for cabanas with tables for 10 ($3,600) and VIP tickets for $420 are still available. (The $266 tickets smart folks bought for out-of-town relatives are no longer available.)
But don’t dawdle. Sales end Jul 24, 2024, next Wednesday, for cabanas with a table and food and drinks for 10. You can book that and tell your friends “We really go for the sport, not the scene.”
In which case you had better bone up. A chukker is seven and a half minutes. You’ve heard of a “string” of polo ponies? It’s one reason polo is a sport for rich people. Riders need a string, because they change ponies (actually horses) after a chukker, to give the first horse a rest. Competitive polo — which this is not — is determined by adding up the number of “goals” each player has made, called a handicap, the top being 10. A stellar polo match therefore is 40-goals. You can dominate the conversation if you’ve been in Wellington for a 40-goal match at the International Polo Club Palm Beach.
Otherwise, just sip your Pimm’s cup and wait your turn to go out and flatten the divots during intermission.
Of course, you need to know if this is a four chukker or six chukker match, so you know when the break comes.
Surely someone will announce that.
You do know that teams switch sides after every score, and ponies after every chukker.
Why are those men holding their mallets in the air and speaking Spanish?
That is because someone has crossed the line of play and someone, probably a ringer who understands what has happened, is claiming a foul.
Ok, back to the social activities.
Ladies, wear shoes with block heels if you plan to go out and stomp divots. A Pimm’s Cup is 25% alcohol, or 50 proof, mild by comparison with straight gin. A few of them will still get you looped.
A glass of Champagne is only 12% alcohol, but so easy to down on a hot day. Be sure you took an Uber.
A New York Times story about a high-goal match in Water Mill by the Equuleus Polo Club. Nacho Figueras has a 6-goal handicap.
Psst: The serious polo in the Hamptons comes in August when the Equuleus Polo Team, based in Water Mill and Wellington, FL, holds its 16 goal invitational cup over six days. That’s a serious one, where Cartier and Net Jets are sponsors.
This one is frou-frou by comparison, even though Equuleus is playing here.
Look out Surf Lodge Polo Club!
