Once Again, Oaks Classic’s Heart Is in the Ride Place

Hot Lips described it best: “Where else in Southern California can you spend a day eating like royalty while you watch magnificent horses parade before you under gorgeous oak trees?”

That mouthful--uttered by platinum-haired television actress Loretta Swit--about summed up the festivities that unfolded Sunday before the hundreds of spectators who attended heiress Joan Irvine Smith’s annual horse-jumping event, the Oaks Classic in San Juan Capistrano.

Unless you count the chance to visit the Hermes booth (where you could buy a silk scarf-sweater for $1,050 or order a saddle for up to $10,000) or the “coming-out party,” as Smith called it, for her recently acquired collection of California Impressionist paintings displayed in a tent dubbed the Irvine Museum (after the museum the heiress plans to open).

Said guest Sally Anne Sheridan, mayor of Irvine: “We’re cooperating with Joan every way we can on this--we’re looking for a facility.”)

When the horsey-set wasn’t watching Hugh Mutch of Northern California bag the $15,000 Grand Prix purse they were ogling the peripatetic hostess, who was decked out in slacks and a Hermes silk Christopher Columbus commemorative blouse.

It went like this: See Smith hobnob with representatives of the National Water Research Institute, beneficiary of the $200 per-person event. (“The mission of the institute is water resource research,” Smith explained. “I’ve promised them $1,475,000 this year”). See Smith schmooze with local art gallery owners and members of the national art-museum set, such as Donna Fleischer, director of the Fleischer Museum in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Noted Smith: “I fell in love with plein-air art when I was 12; my stepfather, Thurmond Clarke, used to take me to lunch at the California Club in Los Angeles, where they had it all over the walls.”

Smith admits her love of people comes after art and horses. “Horses always love you--no matter what you say or what you wear,” she said with a wide smile. “And art makes me happy. Collecting art and opening a museum is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m having a wonderful time.”

Among locals bellying up to buffets loaded with everything from filet of beef to hot fudge sundaes was UC Irvine Chancellor Jack Peltason, soon-to-be president of the University of California. Of his feelings about the new post, which he will assume on Oct. 1, Peltason joked: “I feel like the man who jumped off the Empire State Building and said as he passed the 38th floor: ‘I’m all right so far.’ ”). Also: State Sen. Marian Bergeson and Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley with his wife, Emma Jane.

Also on the scene: Smith’s mother, Athalie Clarke, co-hostess of the affair; “Exorcist” star Linda Blair, wearing a cowgirl get-up; horsewoman Evi Quaid (wife of “Davis Rules” actor Randy Quaid), wearing a Hermes men’s silk vest over her white cotton tank dress; Lillian Fluor; Dr. Walter Henry; Dr. Howard House; Cappy Smith (Smith’s ex-husband); John Crean, and Don Owen, president of the National Water Research Insititute.