Santa Anita Olympics memories

A quarter of a century ago Santa Anita Park and Arcadia were playing host to the equestrian events of the Olympic Games from July 29 – Aug 12, 1984.

by Scott Hettrick

Santa Anita Park had to do a fast and major summer makeover immediately after the end of the racing season in April and be put back together in a few weeks for the September arrival of the horses for the Oak Tree meet.

Prince Philip inspected Santa Anita a couple years prior to the Olympics and spent many days observing and participating at Santa Anita during the Games. Many Arcadians proudly volunteered to assist with various jobs that needed to be done and act as ambassadors to the world while wearing special uniforms that many still own to this day. They talk about never feeling more patriotic than during those two weeks that still stand out as a life memory. (We encourage you to share your memories in the comments area below.)

To cap it all off, Santa Anita became the first venue to stage the final competitive event of the Games just hours before the momentous closing ceremony at a different venue – the Coliseum.

Alan Balch (left) explains plans for Santa Anita Olympics equestrian stadium to Prince Philip in 1982.

Santa Anita Olympics organizer Alan Balch Alan Balch was the competition director for the 1984 Olympic events at Santa Anita, where he was senior vice president of marketing and assistant general manager at the time.

Balch is now executive secretary of the American Saddlebred Horse Association and lives in Lexington, Ky, first-ever U.S. site of the quadrennial World Equestrian Games in September 2010, he notes.

Among Balch’s most vivid memories of the Games at Santa Anita that are numerous enough to fill a book, he recalls His Royal Highness Prince Philip making the rather shocking request about halfway through the Games to drive six Clydesdales into the arena on the final day of competition for the closing medal ceremony. He wasn’t requesting to ride into the arena, mind you, but actually to do the driving himself of the six giant, powerful horses that were used to haul in the victory podium for the medals ceremony.

Prince Philip in spotlight with Clydesdales

Prince Philip drives Clydesdales to deliver medal podium. Photo by Cappy Jackson.

Having been involved with show horse competition prior to shifting to horse racing, Balch knew that Prince Philip was a very accomplished horseman who played polo and even invented competitive “combined driving” of up to four horses pulling a carriage or sled. In fact, His Royal Highness competed at the world level.

Nonetheless, standing on a sled and driving six Clydesdales would be very different than controlling four carriage horses.

His Royal Highness has the Clydesdales in complete control.

Balch and officials at Santa Anita were dreading the thought of the Prince of England suffering a mishap, whether it be injurious or just embarrassing, especially during the final medals presentation in front of packed grandstands and a global TV audience on the closing day of the Games. “It took an incredible amount of work coordinating it and keeping it completely quiet beforehand,” Balch recalled. “He had problems in the practicing.”

Fortunately, everything went smoothly and “the crowd went crazy” when they saw the Prince standing on a sled driving the Clydesdales inside the arena.

A hand-signed thank you letter to Balch from Prince Philip.

In fact, it went so well that Prince Philip later boasted about it to his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, who had not been watching at the time. But the Queen of England didn’t believe her husband. His Royal Highness tried without success to find someone who had taken a photograph so he could prove it to her. Out of desperation, he finally wrote Balch a letter asking if he could provide a picture. Balch also had difficulty tracking one down but finally did so and sent it to the Prince, who responded with a hand-signed letter to Balch more than a year later.

Fargis in gold medal jump on Touch of Class. Photo by Cappy Jackson.

Touch of Humor A few hours later an amusing situation happened unbeknownst to most viewers then and is still not widely known. Olympic organizers wanted to re-stage the final medal presentation for the crowds at the Coliseum and the TV audience tuning in to see the closing ceremonies. Medal winners, including Joe Fargis, who won gold medals for the U.S. in both individual jumping and team jumping on his great mare called Touch of Class, were given the option of taking their winning horses with them or substituting other horses for the ceremony that was miles away.

Joe Fargis and Touch of Class.

All the medalists chose to keep their valuable horses at Santa Anita and use stand-ins at the “re-presentation.” Balch was honored to loan Fargis his personal horse, which they quickly nicknamed “Touch of No Class.”

Joe Fargis on the podium moments after receiving the gold medal for the U.S.

No one told the late legendary Olympics broadcaster Jim McKay about the horse swapping. Balch said he and others at Santa Anita were a little embarrassed for McKay when he announced to tens of millions of TV viewers as Fargis came in with Balch’s old gelding, “Here comes this gorgeous Touch of Class horse.” Balch told McKay about it later and they all had a good laugh, he said.

Improv at Santa Anita But Balch’s favorite goose-bump moment of the Olympics events at Santa Anita was an improvisation by 48-year-old legendary German gold medal Dressage competitor Dr. Reiner Klimke.

Double gold medalist Klimpe on Ahlerich

Considered the greatest horseman in the world for years – he had won gold medals at three previous Olympics dating back 20 years – Reiner was the defending world champion on a horse called Ahlerich and was nearing the end of his career. Klimke won gold again at Santa Anita (he won two gold medals for individual and team Dressage). Following the post-ceremony procedure, Klimke, being the gold medalist, began making a lap around the stadium alone on his horse. Balch said the stadium was sold out with about 35,000 people. As Klimke approached the start of the long, narrow side of the stadium, the prelude of the theme music written especially for the Olympics by John Williams began to swell and Klimke took off his top hat. He held his hat down to one side, with his other hand holding the reins and riding Ahlerich in perfect time to the music.

With the noise of the crowd growing louder and louder, Balch kept giving orders into his headset to make the music louder.

“The place was pandemonium,” Balch recalled, getting chills again as he spoke about it a quarter century later.

Klimke with one of his two gold medals in 1984

But the best was yet to come. Klimke came around the far west end of the stadium near Clockers’ Corner and the crowd began clapping in time with the music.“Klimke put his horse into a canter all the way down the long side of stadium. Then he began switching leads every single stride.

“Most people have no idea how difficult that is to do, “ Balch said, explaining that one set of legs on the same side is leading higher and further forward than the other side. “The natural way of changing leads is when they are switching directions as they would in a figure 8. Horses have to be trained to change leads on a straight line. “He did it every single stride so that the horse appeared to be skipping. And he did all this with one hand.” Balch said it was so sensational that it really revolutionized the sport for the future, with equestrian freestyle to music later becoming a competitive event.

Olympics destiny Balch says Santa Anita was well-suited for the 1984 Games since Santa Anita founder Charles H. Strub was inspired by the 1932 Olympics at the Coliseum to build a venue that would draw the kinds of crowds of 60,000 people or so that were only seen in Southern California in those days at the Olympics and at USC and UCLA football games.

Balch (2nd from right with bullhorn), leads Prince Philip (left), Ray Rogers, and Santa Anita president Robert Strub (right) on a site inspection in September 1982.

In fact, one of the first and most key people Strub hired for his management team was Gywnn Wilson, the man who created the USC-Notre Dame annual rivalry while working at USC and who then went on to manage the operations of the 1932 Olympics. With Wilson on board as treasurer and assistant general manager, Santa Anita Park opened just two years later in 1934, drawing about 30,000 people on its first day, which also happened to be Christmas.

Balch and the team at Santa Anita also drew on another connection to the 1932 Games, Don Williams, to handle catering for the ’84 event. Williams is the son-in-law of the caterer for the 1932 Olympics, Harry Curland.

For advice about the 1984 Games at Santa Anita, Balch leaned on Wilson, who continued with Santa Anita into the 1950s. Wilson attended the 1984 event at Santa Anita, which was then run by Strub’s son Robert P. Strub, president of Los Angeles Turf Club, Inc., operator of Santa Anita Park.

Terrorists, boycotts, budgets, smog, heat There were a lot of concerns about the ’84 Games in general, with the Soviet Union boycotting the ’84 Games after the U.S. boycott in 1980, with the terrorist attack at the Games in Munich in 1972, and with Montreal suffering catastrophic financial losses on the Games that city hosted in 1976. Los Angeles was one of the few major cities to even aggressively bid on the 1984 Games. Santa Anita no doubt benefited from the decision by the U.S. Olympic Committee to use existing facilities in and around Los Angeles rather than build new stadiums that proved a poor investment for Montreal. But there were also concerns about the heat and the smog in the San Gabriel Valley, Arcadia, and Santa Anita during August.

A seven-year itch The whole idea for Santa Anita serving as the venue for the equestrian events of the ’84 Olympics was hatched way back in 1977. Santa Anita was putting on its first national horse show in the infield when veterinarian Willard Ommert suggested the idea to Balch. Balch took it to Bob Strub, whose family knew John Argue, an attorney in nearby La Canada who also happened to be the chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games (SCCOG).

Santa Anita equestrian Olympics stadium looking northeast.

Balch had been on the board of the national governing body for most equestrian sports in the U.S., then called the Association of American Horse Shows. “It all tied together,” Balch said.

The very next year in 1978 Santa Anita was named the site for the equestrian events of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Santa Anita equestrian Olympics stadium looking southeast.

The 1978 national horse show was canceled due to rain and to reconfigure the show as a test event using the Olympic competition format starting in 1979 and each year thereafter.

All this was going on in Arcadia before the now-famous Peter Ueberroth had yet to be brought in as the organizer of the L.A. Olympics.

Meeting the Prince Balch would eventually fly to England in 1980 to meet with the president of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI). That happened to be Prince Philip, whom Balch met at Buckingham Palace.

Prince Philip (right) greets Balch (left, raising hand) outside the executive offices of Santa Anita during a downpour of rain on a 1982 visit. Queen Elizabeth II was in Sierra Madre visiting a nursing home.

The two would meet again in 1982 when His Royal Highness came to tour and approve the Santa Anita facilities.

The upgrades had already begun. A new top-grade equine hospital was built by the Southern California Equine Foundation in 1981 with funding from the Oak Tree Racing Association. The jockey’s room was improved for the 1981-82 season and the stable area was expanded in mid-1982 to house 2,100 horses. Two large concrete-block barns were built as part of $3 million in renovations just before the arrival of the Prince in September. Another $1 million was spent a year later in mid-1983 to replace the sub-base of the main track and to install a new drainage system on the turf track. All that was happening as work began on the first phase of a five-story addition to the clubhouse.

Completed equestrian stadium at Santa Anita.

An amazing feat of engineering But it was the area designated for the equestrian stadium over the main track and in front of the grandstands that had to be the most dramatically altered for the Olympics.

The equestrian stadium consumed an area stretching from the middle of the turf track to the apron of the main grandstands.

The equestrian stadium had to be several times wider than the main track. That meant grandstands and the arena would extend about 25-30 feet onto the first third of the turf track, all the way across the main track and up the apron and the stairs of the primary grandstands. And it all had to be level. “It was really very elaborate engineering,” Balch marveled. “And we had to protect the Spanish mosaic tile on the apron. It was an incredible engineering feat.”

A total of 232,158 people attended Santa Anita during the nine days of competition, with 250 horses representing 31 nations.

Blue skies above Olympics equestrian competition at Santa Anita.

When all was said and done, as with nearly all else connected with those Games, everything went as well or better than could have been expected in Arcadia. The weather turned out to be clear and beautiful, which showcased the spectacular Santa Anita backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Looking north past equestrian grandstands and San Gabriel Mountains to more clear blue skies.

The competitions went off without a hitch. And Prince Philip was so happy with the success of his unexpected show and the management at Santa Anita that he sent Balch a letter a year later on August 14, 1985. He told Balch that his experience with the Games at Santa Anita was by far the easiest and most rewarding of all five Olympics he had attended and participated in by that point.

“It was the only time that the organizers actually knew anything about horses,” he wrote. But it would not be the only time the world would know anything about Santa Anita and Arcadia.

(Note: Many thanks to Alan Balch for forwarding most of the photos and sharing his memories, to Pete Siberell at Santa Anita for connecting me to Alan and Candace Coder-Chew at Santa Anita, who kindly provided some historical information and several of the photographs, and to the Arcadia Historical Society and Arcadia Historical Museum for access to their archives, especially Volume 2, Issue 3 of the Arcadia Police Relief Association’s “A*P*R*A-hend.”)