LA 2028 Olympics: Santa Anita Park

Forbes

24-04-2025

On April 15th, Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California was chosen by the International Olympic Committee to be the site for all Equestrian events at the LA 2028 Games.
Firstly, Santa Anita Park had already successfully hosted Equestrian events at the LA 1984 Olympic Games. The property sits in the north San Gabriel Valley and is just 15 miles from downtown Los Angeles, the epicenter of the Games. The grandstands can hold a crowd of over 50,000 spectators, and there is convenient onsite parking, with public rail transport, shopping and hotel amenities nearby.
But Santa Anita Park is worthy to host Equestrian events for reasons beyond the practical. This historic racetrack has a rich and glamorous place in American horse racing lore.
In 1904 mining millionaire Lucky Baldwin owned Rancho Santa Anita, which included all of present-day Arcadia. He would build a horse racing track next to where the Park track sits. Baldwin had been a successful owner and breeder of racehorses. At that time much of San Gabriel Valley surrounding Baldwin's property was nothing but farmland and fruit orchards. Today over 1.8 million residents inhabit the valley.
In 1909 the California state legislature would pass an anti-racetrack gambling bill which resulted in the permanent closing of the Baldwin racetrack. In 1912 the racetrack would burn down.
Fast forward to 1933: California legalizes gambling. Thereafter a group of investors from San Francisco and Los Angeles form the Los Angeles Turf Club and fund the construction of Santa Anita Park. It would be the first formally-established racetrack in California. Architect Gordon Kaufman would design its various buildings in a sleek, elegant style called Streamline Moderne. And its trademark colors would be persian green and chiffon yellow.
LA Turf club ground floor investors would include movie stars like Bing Crosby and Al Jolson. Many Hollywood people would own race horses as well including: Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn and Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM studios.
Although America was in the grips of the depression, horse racing ('the sport of kings') at Santa Anita would attract crowds from the beginning. It opened on Christmas day 1934. In fact the track would establish a record at the first Santa Anita Handicap race in February 1935 with a winner's purse of $100,000–the largest of any race ever run in America up until that time. The photographic documentation of the finish was first used at Santa Anita Park in the inaugural season of 1934-35. The 'photo finish' is regarded as one of the great contributions of the park to the sport.
During the late 1930's Seabiscuit would become America's top race horse. Americans loved him because he was an underdog. In spite of being undersized and knobby kneed, he began to beat bigger, stronger thoroughbreds.
By 1938 he was chosen as American Horse of the Year. But he had never won the Santa Anita Handicap. Finally in 1940 Seabiscuit would cap off a glorious career winning the Santa Anita Handicap with a purse that year of $121,000. In front of 78,000 cheering fans the little horse surged down the homestretch to win by a length and a half. It was his final race. He retired as horse racing's all-time leading money winner.
Equestrian became an Olympic event at the 1900 Paris Games with the individual jumping competition. In 1912, team jumping, individual dressage and eventing (team and individual) was added. Team dressage was added in 1928 to round out the six events that are competed today.
The Olympic sport of dressage is derived from the French term meaning "training" and its purpose is to strengthen the horse while maintaining a calm and attentive demeanor.
Currently, competitive dressage involves progressively difficult levels incorporating multiple tests within each level. Each test is a series of movements that must be performed by the horse and rider. Each movement is scored by a judge on a scale of 0-10. Special tests are also written for musical freestyle, sport horse breeding and performances incorporating multiple horses and riders. Each movement is scored by a judge on a scale of 0-10. Special tests are also written for musical freestyle, sport horse breeding and performances incorporating multiple horses and riders.
Dressage dates back to classical Greek horsemanship. The earliest work on training horses was written by Xenophon, a Greek Military Commander born around 400 BC. Dressage continued to be developed by the military and during the Renaissance; European aristocrats displayed their highly trained horses in equestrian pageants. The Imperial Spanish Riding School of Vienna was established in 1572 and dressage training today is based around many of the principles from this era.
In showjumping, athletes ride a horse over a set of jumps in numerical order, scoring penalties (also known as 'faults') if they knock down any jumps or the horse refuses to go over a jump. The winner is generally the athlete with the lowest score in the fastest time. It is a test of a rider's skill and a horse's ability.
The general rules for a showjumping competition are that each horse and rider jumps between 12 and 15 numbered obstacles, known as a 'track' or a 'course' which takes competitors in several changes of direction within an arena. Every athlete who jumps a clear round (finishing with zero penalties) then competes in round two which is essentially a race held over a shorter set of fences that are slightly bigger and it is referred to as the 'jump-off'.
The fastest horse and rider with the lowest score is the winner. However, there is a slightly different format to showjumping at the Olympics whereby showjumping athletes jump several rounds over a number of days before the winner is decided. Athletes are disqualified if they jump the wrong obstacle or the horse refuses to jump a fence more than once, or if the athlete falls off or both horse and rider fall on the ground.
Commonly referred to as "three day eventing," competition actually spans four days. The team and individual eventing competitions, which are competed at the same time, combine the following disciplines:
Dressage: Taking place over two days (although each rider will only compete once), the dressage test follows the same format as when dressage is contested as its own medal event, but on a lesser scale. In eventing's dressage phase, the three judges rate riders on 21 movements.
Cross country: Eventing's second test is a cross-country competition. Competitors' start times are staggered, with a rider departing every three to four minutes. During the event the horses gallop over natural country terrain, contending with obstacles of logs, stonewalls, water, banks and ditches. The object of the phase is to test the strength, courage and condition of the horse and rider.
Jumping: Held on the final day of competition, the purpose of the show jumping portion of the three-day event is to demonstrate the horse's energy and obedience after the cross-country test. Eventing's individual jumping and team jumping events take place on the same day, with the individual event competed last.