The Hamptons have been buzzing that Bridgehampton Polo is “dead” just two years after billionaire Peter Brant and polo god Nacho Figueras teamed in an attempt to resuscitate the ailing event — with mixed results. But organizers insist local reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated.
Brant and Figueras took over the annual polo matches in 2012 and vowed to make them more exclusive — slashing guest lists from 2,000 to 500 — after the event became a free-for-all that was more “Real Housewives” than upper crust.
But last summer, with just two matches scheduled for the season and Figueras injured, opening day was marred by an altercation in front of families and VIPs including Christie Brinkley, where an over-served reveler verbally attacked a Persian dentist as a “Pakistani piece of s—t” for dropping a glass in a VIP tent. The year before, a $100,000 polo pony collapsed and died.
“It was once a very elegant event and got more like spring break and went downhill year after year,” a local says, “with renters, day trippers and share house people.” The source added that luxury sponsors abandoned the event because “it was not a polo crowd, like Palm Beach.”
As of Monday, the Bridgehampton Polo Club’s site said six matches would begin July 19, but all the teams were listed as “TBD vs. TBD,” and a sponsorship page read, “not found.” Sources were saying the plug had finally been pulled.
But a rep exclusively told us that opening day will indeed launch in July, featuring Figueras playing for Bash Kazi’s KIG squad, facing Brant’s team, White Birch.
“The season continues for six consecutive Saturdays, through Aug. 23,” the rep said, “with other internationally acclaimed players coming in” for teams including Joe DiMenna’s Equuleus and Alessandro Bazzoni’s CT Energia. There will be a VIP tent each weekend rather than just at opening and closing matches, with “all the bells and whistles,” plus general admission tickets.
It remains to be seen if a proverbial dead horse can be flogged back to life.