Each year the Hampton Classic marks the finale of our summer, drawing equestrian stars along with an audience of moguls, celebrities and socialites to Snake Hollow Road for eight days of competition. Kelly Klein has been competing in the Classic since she was a little girl and she will do so again this year. "I love the competitive part of it," she says. " I love the horses-their personalities, training them, everything about that animal."

Kelly Klein readies herself for competition next weekend.

Returning in the amateur hunter division, Klein explains, "the hunters don't jump as high, they're judged more on beauty, grace and the ability to make it look effortless. It's more precise."

High-profile competitors like Klein will find themselves in good company this year. Fellow riders Georgina Bloomberg, Hillary Dobbs and Jessica Springsteen, who last year placed first in ten events, are among the stalwarts. Galloping by tents filled with men in summer-weight suits and women in wide-brimmed hats, these young athletes cut an impressive silhouette in starched white collars, buttoned blazers and jodhpurs tucked into leather riding boots; the stiff, stunted brim of their helmets serve as their only shade from the parched weather and August sun. Still they clear mammoth fences with tight-lipped grace.

While other equestrian events also encourage friendly competition, Klein says the Hampton Classic is one of a kind. "This is a big production. There's incredible competition." With over 1,600 horses and 40,000 spectators appearing throughout the week, the Classic is the largest hunter/jumper show in the country. Some 3,000 guests can be seated at any one time under the VIP tent that clocks in as one of the largest in the nation. Last year the audience included Judith and Rudy Giuliani, David Yurman, Christie Brinkley, Kelly Ripa and Mayor Michael Bloomberg . Tables are sold in packages starting at about $10,000; corporate sponsors have staked their claim for the lion's share of these. This year, $600,000 will be awarded in prize money, a third of which is slotted to the winner of the Grand Prix, one of the most highly anticipated show-jumping events nationwide.

Local horse lovers Joanie Goodman and James Lipton gear up for opening day.

As impressive an event as the Classic has become, former executive director Tony Hitchcock remembers a modest beginning to it all. "My first year with the Classic was trial-by-fire," he says. "My family and I were planning and setting up the event's food service in a field that is now Dune Alpin Farm in East Hampton. Two days before the show opened, a hurricane came through and blew it all down flat. We struggled, rebuilt, got ice, and a couple of days later the show opened at last. We began our relationship with the Hampton Classic as caterers and over the years it evolved into the positions of the executive directors for my wife Jean and me. Our beginning was humble and full of drama."

The Hampton Classic was first organized in the early 1900s and carried on somewhat sporadically through the century, suspending competition during the First and Second World Wars. The show was revived in 1959 as the Southampton Horse Show, only to become dormant again until its final revival in 1971 by the Topping Riding Club in Sagaponack. Originally lasting one day, in 1976 it became a five-day event that took place at Dune Alpin Farm. In 1978, the title "The Hampton Classic" was officially adopted and the show moved to its present location on Snake Hollow Road in Bridgehampton in 1982.

After Hitchcock retired four years ago, the Hampton Classic found a new executive director in Shanette Cohen. Though the actual event only lasts one week, "this is my year-round job," Cohen says. "During the show we have hundreds of people working with us, from office staff to jump and grounds crews to our officials and judges. Year-round we're only about five people, but it takes legions of us during the summer to make this work. This is quite a big production."

And it keeps getting bigger. Standing on the shoulders of giants, "every year we do what we can to improve upon what is already a huge, spectacular equestrian and social event," says Cohen. This year, in addition to raising the prize for the Grand Prix to $200,000, (up $50,000 from last year) its entry fee will also be waived. The change "has already had a good impact on our horse riders and owners," Cohen said. "I think they're really pleased with that."

Grand Prix riders are typically past Olympians, though two of the four riders on the current US Equestrian Team have also mailed in their applications. "It's the usual suspects when it comes to who's going to be riding," Cohen says. "As far as the current Olympians go, we expect McClain Ward and Anne Kursinski, the latter of whom is an alternate." Though the two riders will be back from Beijing in time for the Hampton Classic, their horses will not. In accordance with US regulations, the horses will have to remain in quarantine for two weeks. The pair will have to ride on different horses than those from the Olympics.

The Hampton Classic commences Sunday, August 24 with the Manhattan Mortgage Company's Opening Day, one highlight including the Leadline competition. One hundred riders under the age of eight will command the Grand Prix ring until the Opening Ceremony at noon. "I love the fact that Leadline is judged by Joe Fargis, an Olympic equestrian gold medal winner 24 years ago," says Hitchcock. "I think that is what is so great about the Hampton Classic: you'll find here a range riders from young beginners to intermediates to world-class athletes, all jumping together in one week."

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