Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with comments from the LA28 media representatives.

After a nearly four-year process working with Olympic representatives to prepare Galway Downs in Temecula, California, to host equestrian events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, last week’s switch up shocked the venue’s owner, Ken Smith. When the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve Galway Downs in March, Smith was ready to celebrate. But leading up to the International Olympic Committee’s April 9 board meeting, where they were expecting an official announcement, he and other Temecula officials grew concerned that they hadn’t yet received word from the IOC.

“So we put a couple of calls in and we didn’t get much response then,” Smith said Wednesday.

On Monday, LA28 confirmed that Galway Downs was out and Santa Anita Park, the Arcadia racetrack that hosted the 1984 games, will play host for a second time. Smith and other Temecula city leaders are still waiting to hear why their bid for the Olympics ended so abruptly. 

Smith said that over the years, the Galway Downs team responded constructively to feedback from Olympic representatives who visited the site, making upgrades to prepare the property for the specific needs of the Games.

“There was originally [concerns] in the first year or so, year and a half,” he said. “But after many, many visits here, they concluded for the key reasons—which is lower cost to operate because there’s a lot of things here already; the legacy facility; and then a team and related equipment to execute against the size of a program—those were the reasons we were told that we were being set aside. We were going to be the proposed site. They didn’t anticipate that changing.

“I guess I don’t understand what was the process of three and a half years, just to be, in some ways, sucker punched,” he continued. “They didn’t need to do it this way.”

Up until last week, the LA28 website listed Galway Downs as the proposed equestrian venue. Smith said this week that he hadn’t heard of any other facility going through the same rigorous, years-long vetting that Galway did. 

“There’s only one equestrian facility mentioned, no other equestrian facilities were ever mentioned,” he said. “So how did we go from no equestrian facilities being mentioned—we’re already celebrating with the bubbles and the champagne—and find out ‘no, no, you’re out.’ So that was absolutely disappointing and frustrating, without question.”

After the International Olympic Committee’s ambiguity regarding the equestrian host at its April 9 press conference, Smith and his team finally got the news they had been dreading. 

“Eventually, about a week ago, we got a call from the COO [of the LA28 organizing committee] and two of the folks that we were working with for those three and a half years,” Smith said. “There on the phone call they say, ‘Hey, they’ve made a decision. They’re going to pull the Olympics from [Galway] and go another direction.’ And we ask, ‘Why? Why? Why are you pulling the Olympics?’ And they go, ‘For a host of reasons.’ I go, ‘Well, what’s one? There’s a host, so what’s one?’ They couldn’t give us one. So that was frustrating and unfortunate.”

When Smith compares Galway Downs to Santa Anita, he still sees the strengths of his facility and feels his team was up to the task of hosting the Games. Smith wondered how Santa Anita Park, as a racetrack, will be able to meet the needs of a three-day equestrian site, including building a cross-country course, which FEI rules stipulate should be 5,000-5,800 meters (3.1-3.6 miles) long. In 1984, the cross-country phase was held on a golf course near Rancho Santa Fe, a city in San Diego County.

“The family that hosted the Olympics in ‘84, they didn’t even host the cross-country,” he said. “It’s not going to be a legacy cross-country course. It may be a course that stays for jumping for some time. That’s not what that facility has been; that facility has been a racehorse facility. It’s not an English-style equestrian facility. Never has been.”

An FEI spokeswoman confirmed this week that dressage, show jumping and eventing will all be hosted on-site at Santa Anita, but did not share plans for how the venue would accommodate a cross-country course. 

“All the equestrian events will be held at Santa Anita and there are no alternative plans,” the spokeswoman wrote in an email, referring further questions to the LA28 committee. “The selection of the venue was made by the LA28 Organising Committee in close cooperation with the FEI to meet the requirements set by the IOC.”

When asked about Santa Anita’s proposal to accommodate cross-country, LA28 media representatives told the Chronicle, “What was shared in Tuesday’s announcement includes all the details we can provide at the moment. There will be more information available in the lead up to the 2028 Games to address field of play, spectator experience and competition schedule.”

Smith, whose cross-country course will soon host the American Eventing Championships this August, believed that his venue was ready for the Olympic stage. 

“We turned [Galway Downs] into a very, very vibrant, growing, very successful equestrian property, and it’s doing well,” he said. “I thought we thought we were a model of success in the equestrian world here on the West Coast, and I look over there and go, what’s going on there at Santa Anita? It doesn’t look like success to me.

“But you know, we’re very proud of our facility here, we’re very proud of the Temecula area, and the county, and the wine country,” he said. “We thought we would have been great—we still think we would be a great place to host this.”