The Bluegrass and Beyond

I was interviewed last week by Horse Radio Network, an Internet radio venture that is covering the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and other horse sports for an international online audience.

Hosts Samantha Clark and Glenn “the Geek” Hebert talked with me and Niki Heichelbech of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau about Central Kentucky and what there will be for Games visitors to see and do while they’re here.

You can listen to the show by clicking here.

After announcing Tuesday that the state would find money to bury power lines along the Newtown Pike extension, Gov. Steve Beshear remarked that if we hadn’t done this project right, we would have regretted it for decades.

He’s right about that. And it’s scary how close it came to being done wrong.

Many people deserve credit for quickly changing the course of this project and saving it from mediocrity, including Beshear, Mayor Jim Newberry and several Urban County Council members.

But after city officials take their bow, they need to take a hard look at why this sort of thing happens too often in Lexington.

The Newtown Pike Extension has been on the drawing board in one form or another since the 1930s. As dreams turned into designs over the past few years, city officials promised the project would create a beautiful new gateway into Lexington, complete with a “signature” bridge.

Somehow, though, those dreams and promises didn’t make it into the state Transportation Cabinet’s blueprints.

Many people — including Urban County Council members — just assumed the power lines would be buried, rather than strung up on poles like those that clutter much of Lexington’s skyline. Not so.

Architects Graham and Clive Pohl, brothers who own property along the Newtown Pike corridor, sounded the alarm after Kentucky Utilities contacted them about buying an easement to string lines.

That created public outcry, prompting Newberry to ask Beshear for state help in paying to bury utilities and the governor to shake loose some Transportation Cabinet contingency money.

“Citizens got our attention on this issue,” Beshear said.

It was a good save all around. But the bigger issue is why the save was needed.

Lexington has come a long way recently in creating a vision for excellence in downtown development. Part of it is a desire to “clean up for company” before the Alltech FEI 2010 World Equestrian Games. Part of it is the realization that quality of life is a key component in economic development.

But if Lexington is to stop settling for second-best, we need to find the missing link that too often keeps vision from becoming reality.

Settling for second-best is how we get buildings like the suburban-style High Street Post Office and the federal prosecutors’ building on Vine Street, which looks like a cheap suburban hotel. It’s how we allow the city’s historic core to be demolished for ego-driven, pie-in-the-sky projects like CentrePointe and the World Coal Center.

We’re getting better with vision, but we often seem to lack the structure, leadership and will to make it happen.

The Downtown Development Authority has traditionally seen its mission as facilitating the plans of private developers, although, since the CentrePointe fiasco, Chairman David Mohney has talked about the need to serve a broader public interest. Still, the DDA has limited power.

Great cities seem to find ways to make developers, businesses, government agencies and utilities build in ways that are good for the whole city and not just themselves.

These cities don’t do it by trying to write rules for everything, or creating dense bureaucracies that discourage development. They do it by requiring that major projects undergo public scrutiny and professional review by people with expertise in urban design and planning.

Last winter, I wrote about how the nine-member Downtown Commission has guided the revitalization of Columbus, Ohio’s urban core. Many other cities also have effective design review boards to make sure new parts of the urban landscape fit in and contribute to the whole. Those boards have broad authority, and they don’t settle for mediocrity.

Distillery District developer Barry McNees said the ability of officials to find a way to bury power lines along the Newtown Pike extension is a promising sign for future development in Lexington.

“It begins to define the kind of urban DNA we want for downtown,” McNees said. “A lot of the concern was, if we’re willing to compromise at the beginning, where will we end up?”

There’s no zealot like a convert, and when it comes to believing in Kentucky’s potential, there’s none like Pearse Lyons.

The energetic Irishman, who moved to Lexington three decades ago and built his Alltech nutrition supplement company into a global giant, has a few thoughts about how the future could shine brighter on his new Kentucky home.

Lyons shared some of those thoughts Thursday with the Lexington Forum, telling the monthly gathering of business folks that the keys are education, innovation and building on Kentucky’s existing strengths and resources.

Lyons hopes to showcase many of those resources next fall, when his company sponsors the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park.

But he’s getting a head start in Britain this month at the Alltech FEI European Jumping and Dressage Championships, Aug. 25-30.

More than 60,000 spectators and 150 competitors from 32 nations are expected to attend the games at Windsor Castle. One thing they’ll find, a short walk from the arena, is a Kentucky oasis.

The Alltech Kentucky Village, a tented area inside a white-plank fence, will give visitors a literal taste of Kentucky: burgoo, hot Browns, Maker’s Mark bourbon, Dippin’ Dots ice cream and, of course, Alltech’s Kentucky Ale and Bourbon Barrel Ale.

Everett McCorvey from the University of Kentucky’s Opera Theatre program will direct a vocal ensemble. There also will be displays promoting Kentucky tourism and products.

Muhammad Ali and Pearse Lyons announced creation of the Alltech Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Charitable Fund in Lexington in May. Alltech Photo

Lyons is taking Muhammad Ali to Windsor, thanks to the Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Charitable Fund. After that, Lyons and Ali head to Dublin for a fund-raising dinner and a visit to the Irish town one of Ali’s great-grandfathers left for America in the mid-1800s.

Lyons said he gets dizzy sometimes thinking about how an Irish lad of modest means could grow up to earn a Ph.D. and create a company with annual revenues of $500 million and a 35 percent profit margin — much less hobnob with people such as Ali and Queen Elizabeth II.

It all came down to education, entrepreneurship and taking advantage of opportunities. The same formula can work for Kentucky, too, he told the Lexington Forum.

Lyons noted that Kentucky and Ireland have many similarities. They’re both beautiful, mainly rural places with about 4 million people, rich heritage and a history of seeing their smart young people leave for opportunities elsewhere.

Ireland reversed its fortunes by focusing on education and innovation, and Kentucky can do the same.

This time of economic transition is when Kentucky should look for new opportunities and new ways of doing things, Lyons said.

For example, Kentucky should neither ignore its rich coal reserves, nor expect to continue mining and burning coal the old way, given environmental concerns and climate change. Instead, he said, Kentucky should be at the forefront of figuring out how to make coal more valuable “within the new rules and regulations.”

One way to do that is by focusing on carbon-capture research. Lyons thinks one solution could be algae — the fast-growing slime that produces two-thirds of the world’s oxygen by soaking up carbon dioxide.

Another opportunity is aquaculture, because Kentucky has enormous reserves of fresh water, much of it underground.

“Fish is an incredible opportunity for Kentucky,” he said. “Where the poultry industry is today, the fish industry will be tomorrow.”

Algae and aquaculture are two of many things Alltech researchers are working on.

“The possibilities for innovation are enormous,” Lyons said. But innovation requires education.

Lyons said Kentucky universities must develop programs that will retain the state’s own students and attract those from elsewhere. And he challenged Kentucky businesses to invest in education.

He said Alltech donates laboratories to schools and pays graduate students to earn Ph.D.s, do research for the company and stay in Kentucky after graduation.

While looking for new opportunities, Kentucky should continue developing signature industries such as bourbon and horses that already have infrastructure and international reputations. For example, one thing that led Alltech to develop its popular Bourbon Barrel Ale was Kentucky’s ready supply of used bourbon barrels.

Along with more focus on education, Lyons said, Kentucky needs leaders.

“The leader’s job is to bring uncertainty out and certainty in,” he said. “That’s what our state needs. Because in 20 years’ time the whole world is going to change. Which way? I’m not sure. But it’s going to change. And please God it will change, because therein lies our opportunity.”

Did you know that both France and Spain once claimed to own Kentucky?

That the Marquis de Lafayette’s winemaker planted America’s first commercial vineyard here in 1798?

That a Lexington man invented the ripcord parachute pack?

And that Kentucky’s horse-to-people ratio is 1-to-12?

Do you know how to help someone visit a horse farm, see a distillery or find a good place to eat or hike?

I know these things because I am now a Certified Tourism Ambassador.

I’m sure you’re impressed.

I was one of 10 people who gathered at the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau last Saturday morning for a four-hour class. We already had read a thick workbook and completed exercises on local geography and visitor problem-solving.

After we passed a test, we joined 860 others from 30 previous classes who have become Certified Tourism Ambassadors since early last year. We even get a badge. OK, so it’s really a lapel pin.

The bureau hopes to train at least 1,500 ambassadors by next fall, when Lexington will host its biggest tourism event ever, the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Candidates for the training include hotel and restaurant workers, cab drivers, police officers, LexCall and airport staff members, Realtors and people who want to be volunteers at the Games. But anyone can do it.

In addition to Lexington, classes have been held in Frankfort, Richmond, Lawrenceburg, Berea and Nicholasville.

The idea behind the program is that the best way to build a tourism economy is to make sure each visitor has a great experience. That will make those visitors more likely to tell others good things about a city and come back again.

Tourism is big business in Central Kentucky, and not just because of the Games. The bureau claims tourism has a $2 billion economic impact in the region, thanks largely to horses, history and bourbon. Lexington alone has 2.5 million overnight visitors each year — an average of 6,900 a day.

“That’s almost 7,000 opportunities we have each day to make a good impression,” said Julie Schickel, who runs the training program.

My class was a diverse group that included a hotel supervisor, business people and several retirees who like to volunteer.

Wickliffe “Wickie” Hardwick, a retiree who wants to volunteer during the Games, decided to take the class because “we were told that this was a great place to start.”

Hardwick is a Winchester native who has lived here for most of her life. Still, she learned a lot from the training workbook, which is a great, concise briefing on Central Kentucky history, culture and attractions.

“There were so many details I didn’t know; it’s been fun going through all of this,” said Susan Morris, a retired Chicago native who has lived in Lexington for 36 years.

Almost everyone in my class was either a Central Kentucky native or had lived here a long time. We enjoyed sharing local trivia, restaurant recommendations and tips for places to go and things to do.

“I learned a lot from hearing people talk about their favorite places,” said Brenda Kirkpatrick, who at 19 was the youngest class member. She is a front office supervisor at the Hilton Suites at Lexington Green.

Kirkpatrick, who was born and raised in the Nonesuch community of Woodford County, said childhood vacations often involved traveling around Kentucky. After taking the ambassador class, she said, “I think I’m going to go do it all again.”

For more information

To learn more about Certified Tourism Ambassador training, contact Julie Schickel at the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau, (859) 244-7717 or jschickel@visitlex.com

Pearse Lyons, the founder and president of Alltech, says he has arranged to take Muhammad Ali to England in August to meet Queen Elizabeth II.

His next mission: Persuade the queen to return to Kentucky in the fall of 2010 to attend the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Pearse Lyons talks with Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Windsor Horse Show last month. Alltech photo

Lyons and his wife, Deirdre, met the queen for the first time May 15 at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, on the grounds of ancient Windsor Castle, the British monarch’s weekend home just west of London.

Nicholasville-based Alltech is the title sponsor of both the 2010 Games at the Kentucky Horse Park and the Alltech FEI European Jumping and Dressage Championships, Aug. 25-30 at Windsor.

Thanks to a new charitable foundation that Alltech has created with the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Lyons said he has arranged to take the boxing icon to the horse show at Windsor.

After that, Lyons said, he hopes to take Louisville-born Ali to Lyons’ hometown of Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 30 for a fund-raiser he is organizing for the Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global and Charitable Fund.

Lyons and Ali announced the fund’s creation last month at Alltech’s 25th annual International Animal Health and Nutrition Symposium, which brought more than 1,200 people from around the world to Lexington.

Muhammad Ali and Pearse Lyons announce the Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global and Charitable Fund last month. Photo by Charles Bertram

Alltech launched the charitable fund with a $50,000 gift, and Lyons said several companies have indicated interest in supporting it. The goal is to raise $500,000 before the 2010 Games. The fund will support higher education scholarships and mentoring programs as well as humanitarian and disaster relief.

Lyons said he spent more than an hour with the queen at the horse show, chatting while they watched children compete on ponies. He said he talked about his new partnership with the Ali Center.

“She seemed particularly interested in Muhammad Ali,” he said. “And she’s very much into philanthropic things.”

He also made a pitch for her to return to Kentucky, which she has visited at least five times since 1984.

Lyons thinks there’s an especially good chance she will attend the 2010 Games if her granddaughter, Zara Phillips, who won the eventing championship at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, comes to Kentucky to defend her title.

Lyons could never be described as shy, but he said meeting the queen for the first time was intimidating, even though she was friendly and down-to-earth. Before they met, Lyons said, he thought a lot about how to begin the conversation.

“I told her, ‘Your majesty, I have been disappointed in you since 1953,’” Lyons said. “To which she replied, ‘Whatever for?’

“So I explained that as a young boy my brother and I went to London. My mum and dad were going on to France, and so they left us with an aunt of ours in London. And my aunt explained that she would bring us to see the queen and then we would have tea.”

It was the queen’s coronation day, but the Lyons boys just assumed they were having tea with her personally.

Instead, they were taken to the coronation parade, where they saw her ride by in a coach.

“I said, ‘I waved at you along with hundreds and thousands of others, and then we had tea in a tea shop.’” Lyons said.

“‘Oh, how disappointing,’” she said. “‘We shall have to rectify that.’”

Lyons doesn’t know if that means he will have tea with the queen when he returns to Windsor Castle in August. But if he has Muhammad Ali with him, the odds would seem better than they once were for an Irish lad of 8.

Jamie Link may be the chief executive officer of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, but when it comes to riding horses, he’s a novice.

So when he and other top Games officials recently saddled up to see part of the 100-mile endurance course being mapped out across farms surrounding the Kentucky Horse Park, Link was given a horse with two names.

One name was Rocket, which Link used frequently and emphatically as he maneuvered well alongside his more-experienced colleagues.

Others called his golden mount by a name indicating a more gentle nature, Buttercup.

This was a slow, four-mile ride over beautiful Mt. Brilliant Farm. But everyone was thinking about what it would be like for more than 80 competitors who will gallop over it in a day-long race against the clock on Sept. 26, 2010.

Endurance racing will be one of the most high-profile of the Games’ eight disciplines, for a couple of reasons.

The race is scheduled for the second of the 16 days of competition and will be featured prominently, along with a recap of opening ceremonies, on NBC Sports’ first hour-long telecast of the Games.

That show has the potential to be a spectacular video postcard for Central Kentucky’s horse country — not to mention the glamour of the Games.

But because the endurance race is so demanding, any televised deaths or serious injuries to horses have the potential to damage the reputation of equine sports in the eyes of a skeptical public.

The 100-mile course will consist of six loops of between 10 and 25 miles each, beginning and ending at the Horse Park’s Forego polo field. The section of the course officials rode recently — over hills, through valleys and across creeks — is part of the most demanding loop.

“This is the tactical loop,” said Emmett Ross, the endurance discipline manager for the Games who has been working for months to design the course. “This is going to take the pee and vinegar out of them.”

The safety of horses and riders is the major consideration in how the endurance course is designed, and how the race is managed, Ross said.

Safety has become a big issue since two horses died in the 2002 World Equestrian Games’ endurance race in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, and one died two days after falling ill during the 2006 Games’ race in Aachen, Germany.

Horses will be checked by veterinarians at six stops during the 100-mile race, and any showing signs of dangerous stress won’t be allowed to continue. Only 40 percent of the horses finished the race in Aachen, and Ross expects a similar percentage here.

The race also is taxing on riders, who could range in age from 14 to almost 70. Among the most serious competitors will be Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Dubai ruler and frequent Lexington visitor better known for his involvement in thoroughbred racing.

Games officials met for their ride near Man O’ War’s old barn on Mt. Brilliant. They wanted to see the route, evaluate the topography and check the ground’s footing, which they said was excellent on that sunny morning despite recent rain.

Riding with Link were Games Chairman John Long, board members Alston Kerr and Becky Jordan, Horse Park President John Nicholson and staff member Todd Waronicki. I bounced around in the back of a pickup truck with two Games staffers. The group followed an all-terrain vehicle driven by Ross, who seems to have been preparing for this job his entire career.

As a rider, Ross won Fédération Equestre Internationale endurance events in nine countries and was a gold medal team member in the first North American Championships. He has spent two decades as a trainer, organizer, manager and consultant for endurance events, including the 1984 and 1996 Olympics.

Aside from his knowledge of endurance riding, Ross seems to be an accomplished diplomat. He has reached agreement with 27 owners of more than 60 parcels of land on thoroughbred, standardbred, corn and tobacco farms.

During the actual race, only event staff members, about 300 volunteers and some media will be allowed on the course beyond the Horse Park; others must watch on big video screens at the park.

The course, which will be marked off with classic Kentucky tobacco sticks, will cross roads 14 times as it runs through such famous farms as Elmendorf, Dixiana, Walnut Hall and Castleton Lyons. With leaves in full fall color, the sun rising as the race begins and setting as it ends, it should make for a spectacular scene.

The course will get its first test this Oct. 14, when 75-mile and 100-mile Kentucky Cup races are held. Ross joked that the beauty of the course could be a handicap for competitors: “I think some of them may get to looking at the scenery and just stop.”

Who comes out for cross-country day at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event?

Mostly horse people — thousands and thousands of horse people, from across the country and around the world. Many of them are serious horse people.

You can tell the serious international horse people because they converse in French or German, or have accents as British as the Rolex’s play-by-play announcer. Some are impressively overdressed, but they seem not to mind as temperatures on a sun-splashed Saturday rise well into the 80s.

You can tell other serious horse people because their less-impressive clothing contains the logos of Rolexes past, other major horse events or their local riding club. They carefully mark notes in the program and comment to one another about each rider’s performance and technique.

Others may be dressed normally, except for a telling accessory. Take, for example, the woman in the white sun dress, straw hat and knee-high Gore-Tex and leather riding boots. This was not a day for waterproof boots. My guess is that she bought them from the Irish vendor and thought they were easier to wear than carry.

The Rolex trade fair in one corner of the Kentucky Horse Park is its own little world of temptation for serious horse people. In addition to waterproof boots from Ireland, there is everything from made-to-measure saddles and English riding apparel to handy gadgets like the Jiffy Steamer hay storage device.

A growing number of horse people come armed with expensive cameras and long, heavy lenses. Others seem just as happy with the results from their little point-and-shoots. The wonders of digital photography and auto focus have made it easy to capture the magic of a beautiful animal and a skilled rider as they thunder down the course and glide over a jump.

A major Rolex demographic is little girls who love horses and older girls who are getting good at riding them. They are accompanied by camera-toting fathers, and mothers, many of whom used to be those little girls.

Johnny Smith was there with his daughter Jordan, 19, who has been riding since she was 8 and has always wanted to come to Rolex. They decided just last Wednesday to make the trip up from Dallas, Texas. They drove all day Friday and were having a great time.

“I hope to do eventing someday,” Jordan Smith said. “I want to be here someday.” Her father talked about how many camera memory cards he had filled up.

Between the competitors’ rides, the little girls give constant loving to the outriders’ horses. Some are veterans, such as Safari, a 14-year-old draft cross who was working his ninth Rolex with owner Maureen O’Daniel of Lexington in the saddle in formal (and hot) riding attire. Others are new, such as Lil’ Mo, a 5-year-old retired thoroughbred racehorse who has found a new career as a hunter-jumper for Lei Ruckle of St. Louis.

The little girls’ younger brothers seem more interested in the funnel cakes in the food area, not to mention the Kettle Korn and deep-fried Oreos. The littlest siblings just want to play in the muddy creek that runs through the course.

There are many people here who would like to be horse people, if only they had more money or time or land.

Karen and Paul Lehman, who moved to Scott County from Florida last year, hope to have horses someday. At the moment, they’re busy with 7-month-old Brandon and another baby on the way. “We’re just getting into the whole horse thing,” she said.

I also suspect many of the 40,600 people who came out Saturday are like me — they don’t own horses or ride horses or even really know much about them. Rolex, like Keeneland, is one of those bonuses you get for living here. It’s a good excuse to get out and walk around on a beautiful day in a beautiful place and see some of the world’s best horses and riders do amazing things.

In 516 days, the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games will begin its 16-day run at the Kentucky Horse Park, bringing together the world’s best athletes in eight equine disciplines. Hundreds of thousands of horse people will be here, including many of the world’s most serious horse people. Tickets go on sale Sept. 25.

But Games organizers also want to make sure they leave room for average, local people who just want to come out to see some horses and riders do amazing things. That’s why some general admission tickets will be available. (Prices will be announced late this summer.)

“Our event will be as much for the Lexington resident as for the international horse person,” Games spokeswoman Amy Walker said. “We want people to come out and enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime event.”

Think of it as one of the bonuses of living here.

Click on each photo to enlarge it.

Plans to build the nine-mile Legacy Trail for cyclists and pedestrians between downtown Lexington and the Kentucky Horse Park have hit a roadblock.

The city’s Board of Adjustment failed to approve a land swap between Vulcan Materials Co. and the University of Kentucky that trail organizers say is essential.

Vulcan wants to swap the university some land surface next to UK’s farm complex north of I-75 between Newtown and Georgetown roads, in return for the right to mine limestone under some of the university land in the future.

Although Vulcan operates a quarry nearby, there are no immediate plans to mine underground. The surface area UK would get from Vulcan is where the trail would go.

Without that land swap, the Legacy Trail can’t be built — at least not before the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, said Steve Austin of the Bluegrass Community Foundation’s Legacy Center.

The seven-member Board of Adjustment voted 2-2 on Oct. 31 to reject the land swap, with one member abstaining and two absent. The two board members who voted against it were concerned that underground mining could endanger the Royal Springs Aquifer, the water supply for Georgetown.

Because of the tie vote, the issue will be brought up again at the board’s meeting at 1 p.m. Dec. 12 in the council chambers.

But officials charged with protecting the aquifer see no problem with the land swap, so long as they have the right to review and object to any specific plans for underground mining.

“Our biggest concern … is where they make their entry point” for mining, said Billy Jenkins, general manager of Georgetown Municipal Water and Sewer Service and chairman of the Royal Springs Water Supply Protection Committee. “I told the committee that, with the plans we’ve seen, we’re OK right now, but we don’t want to give up our rights.”

In fact, Jenkins said, he hopes the Legacy Trail will be built and that some of the educational signs planned for trail side will explain the Royal Springs Aquifer. “We don’t get enough information out to the public about their water supply,” he said.

Urban County Councilman Jay McChord, one of the Legacy Trail’s organizers, is urging citizens who support it to attend the board’s Dec. 12 meeting to make their feelings known. “If the board says no, they will have killed the trail,” he said.

Lexington faith leaders meet to plan emergency response

In what might be the first meeting of its kind in Lexington, every religious leader in town has been invited to a gathering at 11 a.m. Thursday at Second Presbyterian Church on Main Street.

One purpose of the meeting is to discuss creating a clergy communications network that could be ready to respond to a local emergency. Joanne Hale of the Church World Service in Florida will be there to offer disaster-preparedness training.

Beyond that, said the Rev. Christopher Skidmore of the Kentucky Council of Churches, “We’re not going into it with any kind of agenda. Whatever the religious leaders want to come out of it will come out of it.”

Skidmore said only 40 of the 400 religious leaders who were invited have confirmed they will attend, but he is hoping many more will come. So far, it’s a diverse group. “Our first respondents were from the Muslim community,” he said.

Time has been set aside for private midday prayers, and the lunch caterer will adhere to kosher and halal dietary requirements.

The meeting was prompted by remarks Mayor Jim Newberry made several months ago to the Downtown Christian Unity Task Force. “He made mention of some of the desires he has for a community that is more united and connected,” Skidmore said.

For example, if Lexington were to experience another disaster such as the 2006 crash of Comair Flight 5191, it would be helpful for the city to have a single point of contact to alert the faith community, and for members of the clergy of all faiths to be trained in disaster counseling.

“We are just creating the space in which they can do whatever they wish to do together,” Skidmore said. “I think we’ll find that we agree on far more than we disagree on.”

Kentucky’s potential for success in a global economy might not be obvious to people who have lived here all of their lives.

Pearse Lyons, an Irishman who heads the animal nutrition company Alltech, says he sees it. And he is convinced it can be achieved if Kentucky invests in education, focuses on scientific innovation and markets its brand.

Lyons is barnstorming the state this week to deliver that message in a series of public lectures. He began Monday in Glasgow, then drove to Murray and Owensboro. He plans to make six more speeches around the state Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dr. Pearse Lyons

Lyons, who started Alltech in Jessamine County 28 years ago, said Kentucky has some of the same advantages that helped launch Ireland’s economy in the 1980s. Both places have about 4 million residents, and their governments and universities are small enough to be accessible.

Lyons thinks Kentucky needs more public-private partnerships to invest in education and innovation. He hopes other companies will join Alltech in funding Margin of Excellence scholarships at the universities of Kentucky and Louisville to attract and retain the bright minds who will create tomorrow’s technology.

Earning a Ph.D. degree often requires a student to study for five years while living on a $20,000 annual university stipend. After graduation, first jobs don’t pay much.

“Who in their right mind would do that?” Lyons asked during a telephone interview on the road between Glasgow and Murray. “Why does Ph.D. have to stand for Poor, Hungry and Driven?”

The Margin of Excellence scholarship provides a $40,000 annual stipend on top of the university money for up to five years, plus an additional $10,000 for published research and another $10,000 if the student stays in Kentucky for three years after graduation.

“We’ve stepped up and done the first one,” which went to UK animal nutrition student Anne Koontz, Lyons said. “We’ve got a couple of people to step up and do the second and third. What we need is like-minded business people and businesses to step up and say, ‘Let’s create the single best Ph.D. program in the world.’”

Lyons, whose company operates in 113 countries, said such scholarships could be an inexpensive way for companies to do critical research. “You couldn’t hire a technician for $40,000 a year,” he said. “And here you’re going to get the brightest and the smartest focusing on your problem. It’s a no-brainer.”

Technology could allow Kentucky to keep building on traditional strengths, such as agriculture and energy. For example, the horse industry could fund a Ph.D. student interested in figuring out how to capture methane from manure. Coal companies could fund students to study ways to create clean-coal technology by capturing carbon dioxide.

Despite the economic slump, Lyons thinks this is a good time for companies to invest in the future. For example, he said, Alltech has secured government grants to help build a bio-refinery in Springfield that will create energy from renewable cellulose, such as corn cobs, switch grass and kudzu.

“Let’s focus on the problems of Kentucky,” he said. “Let’s focus on making those problems opportunities.”

Good marketing is vital, he said, for a state as well as a company. Lyons thinks Alltech’s sponsorship of the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games will be good for marketing his company — and Kentucky. “It’s an incredible opportunity to show Kentucky to the world,” he said.

In some ways, Kentucky has a better image abroad than it does in the United States, thanks to such exports as Thoroughbred horses, bourbon whiskey, bluegrass music and what Lyons calls the “super brands” of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Muhammad Ali.

Good marketing sometimes just means taking advantage of small opportunities. Last Friday night, Lyons was back in Dublin for a black-tie dinner to receive the Foundation Day Medal from his alma mater, University College Dublin. But he didn’t go home alone.

That same evening, Alltech sponsored a recital at the Royal Irish Academy of Music by Everett McCorvey and Tedrin Blair Lindsay of UK Opera Theater, along with four UK students who have won the school’s Alltech-sponsored vocal competition.

After the recital, McCorvey said, he secretly arranged to hurry over to Lyons’ event so he could close the dinner by performing a special arrangement of My Old Kentucky Home with University College’s Choral Scholars.

After the performance, Lyons said, “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”

And it exposed 600 influential people in Ireland to a brand: Kentucky.

IF YOU GO
Lyons’ lectures

Saturday morning was cold and gray, but more than 40 people came to Cheapside before 8 a.m. for a five-mile bicycle ride on the first section of the proposed Legacy Trail from downtown to the Kentucky Horse Park.

The group rode five miles out to Coldstream Park, where another 50 or so people came out to comment and offer suggestions to developers of the nine-mile bicycle and pedestrian trail.

“You go to these things and you always see the bikers and walkers, but we’re getting support from everybody,” said Keith Lovan, a city engineer who is project manager for the trail. “They all see something in it for them.”

The city is building the trail almost as a linear park to provide recreation and education about Lexington’s history and culture. The Bluegrass Community Foundation’s Legacy Center is supporting the effort as one of two things it hopes will be tangible legacies to Lexington from the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

More than $3 million has been raised to build the basic trail from Newtown Pike at Citation Boulevard through Coldstream and Maine Chance farms to the Horse Park before the equestrian games. A site plan will be completed by January and construction will begin next summer. In later years, the trail will be completed in and around existing streets downtown to Cheapside.  For more information about the trail, go to: http://legacycenter.ning.com

(Click on photos to enlarge and see captions.)

Some people think of this as the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.

Others think of it as the annual dress rehearsal for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games — one more almost down, two more to go.

Still others think of it as the apex of the horse sport they love, with all of its beauty, excitement and danger.

However you think of it, the biggest day of this year’s Rolex seemed for organizers and spectators to go about as smoothly as one of those expensive watches it is named for.

The only sadness came for the cross-country competitors, three of whom tumbled at jumps, sending one rider and two horses to hospitals.

“It has been a big crowd, a great day,” said Stewart Perry, a Lexington insurance agent and Rolex board member who is the volunteer director of spectator services.

“They’re all leaving with smiles on their faces,” Perry said by cell phone as the crowds dispersed.

Hawley Bennett clears a jump aboard Livingstone. Photos/Tom Eblen

The only operational hiccup seemed to be getting people in and out of the Kentucky Horse Park. Road work within the park for the 2010 Games contributed to a morning backup that reached down Ironworks Pike and Newtown Pike almost to I-75. It was a 45-minute trip, but at least traffic never stopped moving.

Jack Kelly, CEO of the 2010 Games, has always known that moving people in and out of the park will be one of his biggest challenges. The annual Rolex traffic jam confirms his group’s decision to shuttle people in from outside the park. Perry said Rolex would love to shuttle people, too, but it would be too expensive.

Still, Kelly has nothing but praise for Rolex organizers, who have marshaled more than 1,500 volunteers. “I think they’ve made some tremendous strides,” he said.

Jurgen Gohler thinks so, too. The Cleveland-based dressage trainer, who was on the German three-day eventing teams at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, has attended every one of the Kentucky three-day events since they began with the World Championship in 1978.

Gohler also is a regular at the World Equestrian Games, and he thinks the Horse Park will be a great site in 2010.

“They will handle it very well,” he said. “This is a wonderful facility.”

The crowd of 50,275 Saturday was a diverse lot, from all over the country and around the world.

Some Central Kentuckians might have been there out of curiosity, or because it seemed like a fun thing to do on a beautiful spring day. But the parking lot contained license plates from dozens of states, and evidence that many of them belonged to serious horse people.

For example, there was UPNOVER from Indiana — a jumper, no doubt.

“I like to watch riders who are better than I am,” said Kirby Schmidt, an electrical contractor from Medford, Ore., who mailed his deposit for World Games tickets last year.

One obvious demographic in the crowd was horse- loving girls and their parents, such as Mary Beth Brungardt, 14, of Marshall, Minn., and Bethany Beres, 15, of Roswell, Ga. They stood in a long line to get autographs from Stephen Bradley, a star rider and former Olympian.

“It’s great to be around all these amazing riders,” said Bethany, an avid rider who hopes her father will bring her back in two years for the World Games.

And what happens when those horse-loving girls grow up? They keep coming.

“We’ve been coming off and on for more than 20 years,” said Rosemary McGarrah of Evansville, Ind., who was there with her friend and fellow rider Janet Davis of Newburgh, Ind. “This sport has grown by leaps and bounds. In the 1980s, if they had 10,000 people here, it was a big crowd.”

Linda Palumbo of Orlando, Fla., and her sister, Ruth Travis of Franklin, Tenn., came to Rolex for a “girls’ weekend.” They grew up with horses in Florida, where their father bred appaloosas, and Palumbo still rides.

“This place is just fabulous,” she said.

Throughout the day, there were sad reminders of the sport’s danger.

After the first of Saturday’s three falls, Bill Jansen of Tryon, N.C., watched with a worried look as emergency workers checked Dornin Anne North. The daughter of retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North had taken a hard fall.

Jansen’s daughter, Kaitlyn, rides on the University of Tennessee’s equestrian team and hopes to make it to the Olympics someday. “I just don’t want to be one of those fathers,” he said, nodding toward the ambulance that took North off the course.

After the second fall of the day, Joe and Donna Bihner, who live near Chicago, watched quietly with a large crowd as emergency personnel behind big blue tarps worked on Sarah Hansel and her horse, The Quiet Man.

“Everyone here’s an animal lover, and we hate to see anyone hurt,” said Donna Bihner, a rider attending her fourth Rolex. “I hope he’s OK. They put a lot of love in those babies.”

UPDATE: This column was written Saturday evening for Sunday’s newspaper. On Sunday afternoon, it was reported that two of the three horses involved in falls Saturday were euthanized because of their injuries. The rider, Laine Ashker, is hospitalized in intensive care. Read Amy Wilson’s latest update, from Tuesday’s Herald-Leader.

Middle photo: Outrider Heather Bellis-Jones of Paris spent much of the day having little girls admire her horse, T.J. Left to right are Haley Penland, Kadison Leaphart and Kelsey Louthan, all of Greenville, S.C.

Bottom photo: Sisters Ruth Travis of Franklin, Tenn., left, and Linda Palumbo of Orlando, Fla., enjoy a “girls’ weekend”.