The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky. will host the World Equestrian Games in 2010. The leaders of the Federation Equestre Internationale, meeting in Bahrain, picked the KHP over the Normandy region of France.
The first WEG was held in 1990 in Stockholm, Sweden, but this marks the first time it will be held outside Europe. A Kentucky bid to host the 2006 WEG lost to Aachen, Germany, three years ago.
The Kentucky organizers say this will be the largest sporting event ever to be held in Kentucky—larger even than the Kentucky Derby. The Kentucky Horse Park was founded 30 years ago in order to host the 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships. Bruce Davidson won that event, his second consectuive World Championship.
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A team of five Kentuckians flew to Bahrain over the weekend to make their final presentation on Dec. 6 to the FEI. John Long, CEO of the U.S. Equestrian Federation, and John Nicholson, KHP executive director, led the team.
The decision was released at 9:06 a.m. over the Associated Press wire.
