By Alan Lytle, Kentucky Public Radio Despite complaints from some WEG visitors about the food and price gouging, the title sponsor’s president believes the games have gone better than even he had hoped. Alltech president and founder Dr. Pearse Lyons says bringing the World Equestrian Games to the Kentucky Horse Park will pay long term dividends for Kentucky. “After this is over the world will look at Kentucky in a different way, and even more important, Kentuckians will look at themselves in a different way. And hopefully, that’ll be the legacy of the games,” he said. Lyons says he is delighting in proving the doubters wrong.“We’ll knot our naysayers. Oh it can’t be done…and Europeans saying oh the Americans can’t do it, and Americans saying oh Kentucky can’t do it, and the local paper saying oh they can’t do it, and will it be a sellout and will we lose money? On and on and on. But you know what? I don’t do failure, and I don’t do negative.”But not everyone has been as complimentary about their WEG experiences. The Frankfort Journal news has a story today that quotes several Australian visitors voicing complaints about the greasy food, lack of running water in the Porta-Johns, and the overall cost of attending the games. Closing ceremonies for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games take place Sunday night.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.