64 SIDELINES SEPTEMBER 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Morgan Stanley’s real estate holdings in St. Petersburg, Russia.
But despite the potential jet lag from traversing eight time zones,
John was fresh enough for a polo match a few hours after landing.
He didn’t need Mashomack to play; Smithfield Farm, with its
yellow Dutch Colonial mansion located just across a country lane
from where artist Frank Stella breeds Thoroughbreds and raises
race horses, has its own polo field.
“But it’s not regulation size,” said John almost apologetically.
“So we can only play a three-man team.” (A normal polo team
consists of four players.) The polo season finale for local players
is a three-on-three tournament, the Smithfield Farms Cup.
The Klopp clan includes wife Karen, a former TV producer who
runs the fashion-themed website,
What2WearWhere;
Jake, 27;
Adam, 28; and Kell, 18. Adam and Jake play on the Smithfield
team; a recent photo of the Klopp boys in a New York area fashion
magazine could have passed for a Ralph Lauren catalogue shot.
The Klopps are part and parcel of just about every aspect
of the Millbrook equestrian scene. Karen is co-chairman of
the Mashomack International Polo Challenge in June. When
the polo season is over, John rides with the Millbrook Hunt.
What2WearWhere
sponsored a mini-tournament called “The
Young Guns” as a preliminary to the main event at this year’s
Mashomack Polo Challenge. The match was for the children of
Mashomack team players, and Jake rode. For the main match of
the day, John donned the livery of the winning
What2WearWhere
team.
Just a month after the polo challenge, the Klopps and
What2WearWhere
were one of several sponsors of the show
jumping phase at the Fitch’s Corners Horse Trials, and hosted a
champagne brunch field side.
What2WearWhere
offers women advice on what to wear to a
wide variety of events — for example Wimbledon, a hunt ball, a
black tie party … and of course a polo match. All of the carefully
curated ensembles can be purchased by clicking on a link.
Polo is not the only option at Mashomack, as there are
actually two “Mashomack” clubs. The mother ship, called “Big
Mashomack,” has 400 members and an elegant clubhouse filled
with sporting art and antiques. Members shoot sporting clays and
the odd pheasant, cast for fish in its lake and dine on sophisticated
cuisine in the club’s dining rooms.
The Mashomack Polo Club is a club-within-a-club, with 40
riding members. John is a director of the main club and carries
the title of “El Presidente” of the polo club, and while Bruce has
no formal title, he’s the acknowledged locomotive behind the Polo
Challenge.
After taking over Mashomack from the Daly estate, the members
added a new wing, a few Munnings racing and foxhunting prints
and a dining room wing. As John said, the biggest challenge is
updating and restoring the old barns. Juan points with pride to
what has been restored and built to date, but estimates it will take
another six-figure sum to bring the facility up to for the level of a
major polo center.
That’s a task for John.
About the writer: Don Rosendale has won ribbons at third level dressage, prelim
eventing and A show hunters, but never tried polo. He says that is because he is
hopelessly left-handed.
John on the polo field
Polo at the Mashomack Polo
Club in Pine Plains, New York.
