MILL SPRING – Triple Crown season is upon us and some experts say American Pharoah could finally be the one to end the 37-year-old trifecta drought.
Don’t know what any of that means?
What Mark Bellissimo, 53, is doing less than an hour southeast of Asheville and about 40 minutes north of Spartanburg, South Carolina, could change that.
The former software company entrepreneur bought a struggling horse showgrounds property in 2006 and during the next few years became a globally known equestrian-industry mogul. He’s been on a mission to de-elitify the exclusive world of competitive equine sports ever since.
“I want this place to be a private, commercial enterprise centered around the love of horses,” said Bellissimo, atop a dirt ridge overlooking roughly 1,400 acres that make up the Tryon International Equestrian Center.
Make no mistake. The complex plays to the plush crowd. Multi-bedroom rental houses already dot the property. Upscale hotels are in the works. A future sports complex will include a pool, tennis courts and a deluxe workout facility.
The center, which held its first event last year, will have 500 permanent stables, a 6,000- to 7,000-seat outdoor stadium with floodlights, a jumbotron, a concert stage, a 100,000-square-foot covered arena “with the most footing of any arena in the world,” Bellissimo said, and an additional 500 stables.
People will be able to watch movies on the jumbotron in golf carts like at a drive-in, Bellissimo said.
The guest properties will be operated with Salamander Hotels & Resorts.
Future development will include retail space, a second luxury hotel and spa near the Arnold Palmer-designed golf course. Everything could be done by 2017.
State-of-the-art competitive facilities will draw Olympian equestrian athletes to compete in events such as the Rolex Grand Prix on June 6, which NBC Sports will broadcast the following day.
A Grand Prix equestrian competition is comparable to a NASCAR weekly Sunday Sprint Cup race.
Despite the glitz and glam, Bellissimo, a co-founder of Tryon Equestrian Partners and one of a half-dozen primary investors who have spent about $100 million developing the complex, is all about opening up doors, not shutting gates.
Family-friendly events
He plans to do exactly what he did near Palm Beach, Florida — one of the most gilt-edged communities in the country: Flood the fields with commoners.
Against the will of much of the established equestrian community surrounding Wellington village, a hamlet within Palm Beach, Bellissimo said he eliminated admission fees and created an event called Saturday Night Lights.
The family-friendly affair featured horse-jumping shows and allowed people to walk the Wellington showgrounds within the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.
Public support and awareness skyrocketed, helping the 2006, $250 million purchase of the showgrounds transform from a risky Great Recession proposition into a worldwide success.
About 300,000 visitors swamp the center each year.
That site hosts the January-March Winter Equestrian Festival, which annually features roughly two-dozen Olympic riders, Bellissimo said.
Those 12 weeks reap more than $100 million and lead to 90,000 hotel room nights, according to George Linley, executive director of the Palm Beach County Sports Commission.
“I see the same potential here,” Bellissimo said. “I see this resort being a core economic engine for the area.”
He also plans to import another event from Florida: a charity horse race that raised $8 million for more than 120 organizations down south.
“We’re going to do it here, too,” Bellissimo said.
Local impact
The Tryon area has a storied history in equestrian sports, considered the birth place of modern show jumping where the 1956 and 1960 Olympic trials were held.
Building on that foundation, Bellissimo envisions a U.S. Equestrian Center that would develop young American riders.
But the dream doesn’t stop there. Bellissimo also sees partnering with Isothermal Community College in Spindale to develop programs that prepare other professionals that the equestrian industry requires, such as horse groomers and barn managers.
