"Tandy Patrick remembers fretting during the 30-hour return flight from Bahrain, where she and four other representatives of the commonwealth had succeeded in winning the Kentucky Horse Park bid to become the first site outside of Europe to host the World Equestrian Games. "I was busily writing out lists and thinking, 'How on earth are we going to be able to do this and do it well — not just do it well, do it the best that it has ever been done — unless our community realizes the scope and the impact?' And I feel like they do. I feel like it couldn't be better."
Patrick will now have ample opportunity to find out how skillfully Lexington and the region can rise to the occasion of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010. The Louisville equine and real estate attorney and lifelong horse enthusiast has stepped into the lead role at the World Games 2010 Foundation, the organization responsible for planning and conducting the Games at the Kentucky Horse Park. Patrick has been named interim board chair, succeeding Jim Host, who resigned on April 2.
"All of us at 2010 have been aware that Jim was probably not going to be with us for the entire time period," Patrick said. "He indicated from the very beginning that he would get us started, and he has done a magnificent job of getting our framework in place to make this event a success. We have hired a wonderful CEO (Jack Kelly), a wonderful executive staff. We have a title sponsor, Alltech, who is a wonderful partner. We have many other sponsor deals in the works. We have offices, financing contracts, et cetera, so we're very sad to see Jim go, but his leadership will continue."
Host, who had served as a hands-on, pro-active chair without compensation since the organization formed after the Kentucky Horse Park won the 2010 Games, has agreed to continue serving in an advisory capacity. But he acknowledged that the schedule he had been keeping was becoming increasingly tough to manage. "I'll be 70 on my next birthday, and I like to think I'm always 35. I still get up every morning when I'm in Lexington between four and five o'clock — I've always done that, and there just comes a time in your life when you have to recognize your age. You have to recognize where you are in life and how many more productive years you've got left and what you want to do with those years. The last three or four years have really taken a toll on me from a physical point of view, primarily because of my age, I'd say. So I've just decided to do something about it and try to take care of me at this point in my life, as opposed to trying to take care of everything else."
While he has offered to continue as an advisor, Host said he has full confidence in Patrick's knowledge and leadership talents. "She was deeply involved in the original presentation to the FEI and was one of the points in making that presentation. In her current role as chairman of the Horse Park Commission, she is certainly attuned to all of the personnel at the park: understands them, understands the physical assets and the operation of the park. So I think she'll be outstanding."
Patrick, now a member of the prestigious law firm of Greenbaum, Doll, MacDonald has horses in her blood and is an owner/breeder of American Saddlebreds. "I grew up on a small farm in Lawrenceburg, Ky., with horses in the backyard, as do many, many people in our state, and that's how they fall in love and develop this unique and wonderful relationship that man has with the horse." She believes the Games will help dispel perceptions of the equine industry as elitist and accessible only to the wealthy. "You can go out to the Horse Park basically any day of the year and there are events going on that are for anyone and everyone," she said.
Assuming leadership of an organization planning a major international event would be daunting, Patrick said, were it not for the foundation laid by her predecessor, including the establishment of an executive management team headed by Kelly and Chief Administrative Officer Rob Hinkle. She recalled one meeting, in particular, that she believes turned the tide in favor of Kentucky as the host site and credited Host single handedly for making it happen. "The FEI folks from Europe were here in April of 2005 for a site visit. It happened to be during the Rolex event. They visited the Rolex event at the Horse Park, and we had many meetings. But there was one meeting in particular with Jim Host — at the time he was still secretary of commerce — and they expressed their desire for branding. They wanted to increase public awareness, the world's awareness, of FEI and make this their signature event. Jim Host spoke to them about branding and sports marketing in a way that no one had ever done. You know, Jim Host invented sports marketing as we know it today, so we could not have had a better advocate."
Significant challenges remain. The 2007 session of the Kentucky General Assembly failed to appropriate funds requested by Governor Fletcher to construct a permanent outdoor stadium at the Horse Park — a structure viewed by Patrick and other organizers as essential to taking full advantage of any momentum created by the 2010 Games. "There are other facilities available right now today in other cities — Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Columbus, Ohio — that are wonderful, state-of-the-art equine facilities, and we need to be able to compete." Fletcher did dip into discretionary funds to begin a design and planning process for the stadium and has indicated that his administration is considering either a special session of the legislature to address full funding or, short of that, finding additional discretionary funding to cover the estimated $38 million cost of a stadium and road improvements at the park.
During that 2005 flight from Bahrain, Patrick could not have anticipated the paradigm shifts looming in Lexington's future. The prospect of serving as host to an international audience may have played an influential role in the outcome of the '06 election, propelling attorney and cattleman Jim Newberry into office as mayor, construction magnate and arts patron Jim Gray as vice mayor and new faces onto the Urban County Council. And she could not have expected Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson to join the chorus in support of providing the Horse Park with stadium and road funds. "I am so encouraged and appreciative of support that we are receiving from everyone in this community, everyone in the entire state," she said. "I think folks recognize that we all rise with the tide, and even if they're not horse people, they realize the benefit of having the entire world looking at Kentucky showcasing all that we have to offer."
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