The late writer Jilly Cooper famously described polo as an elite world full of glamour, power, and money. If Cooper were alive to witness the St. Regis World Snow Polo Championship in Aspen last week, she’d have had plenty of fresh material as a jet-set crowd descended on the mountain town for a week of champagne-soaked revelry.
The week kicked off with a high-wattage party at the St. Regis lobby. Prince Harry made a surprise appearance as a celebrity guest for the home team, Aspen Valley Polo Club (Meghan, however, stayed home in Montecito), alongside polo legend Nacho Figueras, his wife Delfina Blaquier, and their sons Hilario and Artemio, who were playing for the St. Regis team. From there, the crowd moved to a Hennessy party pouring century-old cognac, where snowboarder Shaun White debuted his Whitespace x St. Regis sweatsuit collection, then on to dinner at Casa Tua, and finally late-night revelry at the Jade Room nightclub.
Before the tournament kicked off on Wednesday, there was the obligatory pilgrimage to Kemo Sabe, where Mariah Carey, Shay Mitchell, and Pia Baroncini picked up custom cowboy hats—the must-have accessory for blending in with Aspen’s Western-chic aesthetic.
Once play began at Rio Grande Park, champagne flowed freely alongside a raw bar, sushi station, and taco setup in the St. Regis tent. Roving waiters circulated, offering caviar bumps and freshly shucked oysters to a crowd swaddled in fur and cowboy boots, carrying dogs decked out in sunglasses, mini cowboy hats, and Moncler puffers. Base State Longevity, meanwhile, offered custom snow polo IV therapy drips, B12 shots, and oxygen therapy.
That evening, some, including Tina Chen Craig and James Tupper, retreated to the hotel’s RAKxa wellness spa to recharge in the ammortal chamber’s infrared therapy and try out Aescape’s AI-powered robotic massage. Others headed straight to the Staud for the St. Regis Alpine Collection unveiling, where White performed a champagne sabrage—slicing the bottle top with a sword. Guests, including Charlotte Groeneveld, Stephanie Suganami, and Sara Sampaio, were then shuttled to Wild Fig for a dinner hosted by Staud cofounder George Augusto.
Thursday’s finals brought out the A-list in full force: Pom Klementieff, Phoebe Tonkin, Kyle Richards, Rebel Wilson, Mikey Madison, Phoebe Dynevor and Cameron Fuller, Raúl and Colman Domingo, and Aspen royalty Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn all turned out for the spectacle. Between chukkers, a DJ with a live trumpet player kept the raucous crowd entertained. When they optimistically played All I Want for Christmas Is You hoping for a singalong, Carey—who presumably hears the song enough—politely declined.
The day also delivered the kind of low-stakes excitement that passes for high drama at 8,000 feet. Harry sustained a hand injury from a mallet. Nacho got into a heated argument over aggressive play, shouting in Spanish to the crowd’s delight. When the St. Regis team clinched victory for the first time in years, Nacho returned to the tent for another champagne sabrage celebration.
“My job is to go out there giving my best and play as good as I can,” Figueras said afterward. “I get very emotional on the field because I play with my heart.” As for the crowd, which seemed more interested in the scene than the score? “I don’t care. People are enjoying it.”
As polo’s biggest champion, Figueras wasn’t just there to play. Among the brand activations this year was Tewün, a clothing line made in Patagonia and founded by his friend and fellow Argentinian former polo player Ruso Sorzana, in which Figueras has a stake. Expect to see a lot more of their eye-wateringly expensive merino wool gaucho bomber jackets in the stands next year.
Figueras has also notably cowritten a polo romance trilogy. “It’s not as good as Jilly Cooper’s, but I believe that polo is a sport that has a lot to offer, and it’s a different way of exposing more people to polo.”
By week’s end, only the hardiest remained standing for the opening night of the new Caviar Kaspia pop-up at the Snow Lodge, where chicken nuggets and baked potatoes topped with caviar were served alongside more champagne.
In the end, was it really about polo? Not really. Did it matter? Absolutely not. What the week offered, in the words of Figueras’s High Season book blurb, was “designer dresses, fine champagne and some of the most gorgeous thoroughbreds you’ll ever see.”
