A landmark event for Kentucky was announced yesterday in the form of the Kentucky Horse Park landing the international World Equestrian Games in 2010 over the French region of Normandy. It's the first time the event has ever been held outside of Europe and it will be the biggest sporting event every brought to Kentucky, even larger than the legendary Kentucky Derby.

Predictions are expecting 300,000 people with competitors from over 50 countries attending the event. The state expects hundreds of millions in revenues. This is the biggest equestrian event in the world. The wonder for Kentucky is that while much has to be done, the basics are already here.

The Horse Park has the unique distinction of being the only facility to house the entire event. The only exception is the endurance event, which runs over 100 miles. While most of this will be in the park, a portion of it will go off the grounds.

The AP had an intial write up from yesterday. The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) had the press release on their site.

The FEI Bureau today awarded the FEI 2010 World Equestrian to Kentucky (USA).

Delegations representing both bids – Kentucky (USA) and the region of Basse-Normandie (Northern France) – have travelled to Bahrain in order to make a final decisive presentation to the FEI Bureau this morning.

“Both presentations were very impressive” commented FEI President HRH The Infanta Doña Pilar de Borbón. “We were in presence of two excellent candidates, both with a strong political backing and a recognised organisational know-how”, she went on. “Basse Normandie and Kentucky are “horses” area and can count on the enthusiastic support of local experts in the field of equestrian sport, and on thousands of volunteers”.

Kentucky won the bid by a large majority. ”We are incredibly gratified to have been selected by the FEI,” stated John Nicholson, Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park. “We are mindful of our great responsibility to properly organise the first non European FEI World Equestrian Games” he added.

The FEI Games are expected to have an economic impact of nearly USD 100 millions for the commonwealth of Kentucky. The Kentucky Horse Park will play host of the FEI Games at the end of September 2010.

“We are working on our candidature for 8 years. Within the hour the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games had been allocated to Aachen, we started working on our bid for 2010,” John Nicholson explained.

The FEI World Equestrian Games are the combination of the World Championships of all the FEI disciplines held concurrently at the same location. The first edition took place in 1990 in Stockholm and was a great success. It was followed by the The Hague (The Netherlands) in 1994, Rome (Italy) in 1998, Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) in 2002. Some 800 riders, drivers and vaulters and their horses, 1,500 media representatives and 500,000 spectators are expected to gather in the German city of Aachen in 2006 for the fifth FEI World Equestrian Games. Competitions – both team and individual – in seven FEI disciplines will be staged: Jumping, Dressage, Eventing, Driving, Vaulting, Endurance, and Reining.

To clarify the ownership of the FEI World Equestrian Games and to establish an impacting long term brand structure, a new identity has been unveiled: the “FEI Games”. This new brand will be understood by all and improve the marketability of the most prestigious property of the FEI portfolio.

For high resolution logo of the FEI Games, please contact FEI Brand Manager Marcus Brugger at m.brugger@horsesport.org.

This is a great event for Kentucky and honestly the U.S. the 2006 games in Aachen is expected to reel in half a million people. Kentucky isn't projected to get quite that many but it's possible. It's nice to see the rest of the world will finally get a look at the land my family has called home for generations. Great job Kentucky.

posted by Stithmeister @ 7:53 PM
 
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