Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher announced on June 19 that the president of Alltech, Dr. Pearse Lyons, had pledged $10 million to be the title sponsor of the FEI Games (formerly known as the World Equestrian Games) in Kentucky in 2010.

“You have no idea the effect this will have in Europe,” said FEI Secretary General Michael Stone.  “This is by far the biggest sponsorship ever in equestrian sport.  The World Equestrian Games in Aachen this year—their total sponsorship budget is $8 million.”

Alltech is a leading animal health company specializing in animal feed and health supplements.  Their mission statement is to create products that are safe for the animal, the consumer and the environment.

Lyons founded the company in 1980 in Kentucky.  He envisioned using natural yeast fermentation and natural enzyme technology as the driving force for providing new alternative technologies for the animal feed industry.

Headquartered in the United States and with a European Bioscience Centre in Ireland, Alltech has developed a strong regional presence in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. It also has 14 production facilities located throughout the world. Today Alltech is growing at a rate of 20 percent per annum and has a current turnover of $300 million.

 “Now for the next four to five years we will take our whole marketing program and build it around the Alltech FEI Games,” said Lyons.  “When it’s all over, we will have launched a whole range of nutritional supplements specifically for horses.” 

Jim Host, the CEO of the Alltech FEI Games, estimated that the Games would cost somewhere between $50 million and $70 million to put on, but they had originally only budgeted for $8 million to $10 million in sponsorship. 

“With this title sponsorship, these Games will pay for themselves,” said Host.  “We’ll also have enough revenue to put on pre-equestrian events that are very important in promoting the event, which in turn will do a lot for building additional economy in Kentucky.”