The biggest event ever scheduled to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park -- the World Equestrian Games -- will end its 16 day run on Oct. 10, 2010. But the following day is the day that the park's executive director says will mark "the new beginning of the Kentucky Horse Park."

That's because all the development and building projects completed in preparation the games will help make large events successful at the park for years to come, Kentucky Horse Park Executive Director John Nicholson told lawmakers on the Appropriations and Revenue Committee Sunday during the panel's meeting in Lexington.

Organizers of some large equestrian events currently held in other parts of the country haven't been able to hold their events at the Kentucky Horse Park in the past because the park lacked the facilities to accommodate them.

"These are national-level events that bring large amounts of people ... that go to cities like Fort Worth or cities like Tulsa or Oklahoma City," Nicholson said. "All of them would love to come to Kentucky and come to a facility like the Kentucky Horse Park that is in an agrarian setting, that has white fences and green grass for their horses. But frankly, we have not had the kind of facility that can accommodate that."

That will change now that construction is underway for a new indoor arena and design work is almost done for a proposed new outdoor stadium, Nicholson said. "We're not only putting ourselves in a position to host the World Equestrian Games, but we're putting ourselves in a position to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact in each year of the decades to come."

 Funding was appropriated by lawmakers for the new indoor arena in 2006. Construction on the climate-controlled facility is ahead of schedule. "It will be as fine an arena as there in the country" Nicholson said. Lawmakers will be asked in the 2008 legislative session to provide $24 million for the construction of the outdoor stadium, Nicholson said. Design work for that project has been funded with $900,000 that Gov. Ernie Fletcher made available from a Department of Parks maintenance fund.

The World Equestrian Games are expected to draw 800,000 people to the Kentucky Horse Park, said Jack Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of the World Equestrian Games 2010. While in Kentucky, they'll see the world championships of eight equestrian sports -- show jumping, dressage, eventing, driving, reining, vaulting, endurance and para-equestrian.

The games are also expected to attract a worldwide television audience of 500 million viewers, Nicholson said.

The World Equestrian Games will be one of the great sporting events -- one of the great international happenings -- ever to occur in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and we are poised to do this in a way that will be a source of pride to every citizen," Nicholson said.

LRC Public Information Office; courtesy of Frank Leidermann, Associate Editor