Party Pictures 8/5/03 - Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge

Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge #4

Pre, during, and post match

Match four of the Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge took place last Saturday in Bridgehampton. Sony Cierge sponsored the match and showcased its latest home entertainment products. Just in case people were getting too close to nature out there in (sorta) horse country.

Cierge, incidentally or not, is Sony’s personalized shopping program, i.e., “privileged access, exceptional service and the development of a loyal relationship between Sony, the Cierge (like concierge, get it?) member and the personal Cierge” That means “world class personal shopping, new product previews, on-site consultations, private training and other personalized services.” Botox? I’m not sure; you’ll have to ask yourself.

Erin O'Brien

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, uh, er, polo field, the crowd turned out for the game, and the turn-out had a great late afternoon party under the marquee. Polo is a beautiful sport to watch and some of the players demonstrate extraordinary equestrian skills and style. It is also, for many, a difficult game to concentrate on. Hence the clamoring crowd around the cocktail bars and the unceasing air-kissing, gnoshing, quaffing and gossiping.

In addition to Cierge, the sponsors include Blue Star Jets, Ciroc, Equinox Fitness Clubs, USA, Hamptons, Greenbeads, Manhattan Mortgage, Moët & Chandon, Tanqueray NO. TEN, Teas’ Tea, Town & Country, Voss and Dr. Howard Sobel’s Skin & Spa Cosmetic Surgical Center.

Long Island is one of the homes of American polo, having its heyday in the first half of the 20th century when Devereux Milburn and Tommy Hitchcock and Winston Guest played against each others teams on their very own polo fields on their vast estates (now mostly long ago sold and subdivided into whole towns). A man (or woman) with a string of polo ponies was in a class immortalized in the American psyche. They could afford it. They were their own sponsors. But that was then and, as I said, the times they’ve a-changed.