by Ed DeRosa

Barbaro was unlike any other horse, so it stands to reason that a sculpture in his honor would be unlike any other piece of equine art.

Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby museum, and Barbaro’s breeders Roy and Gretchen Jackson introduced artist Alexa King and a one-third scale size sculpture of Barbaro that King will design to mark the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner’s final resting place outside the museum.

The sculpture features all four of Barbaro’s feet off the ground, no small feat for a sculptor to create, but a requisite placed on the artist by the Jacksons.

“Roy and I want to portray Barbaro as we remember him best, a beautiful racehorse and an athlete,” Gretchen Jackson said. “Part of our direction to the artists who submitted designs for consideration was to depict Barbaro’s unique racing action. We envisioned him in motion as he began to distance himself from the field at the close of the Kentucky Derby.”

King said that she designed Barbaro’s stride to depict the moments before he reached back for the ground to “re-energize his stride.”

As part of the Kentucky Derby Museum playing host to Barbaro’s final resting place, it also will open a Barbaro exhibit beginning with the Churchill fall meet. Next year, it will feature student sculptures of Barbaro that will be auctioned off at the end of the spring meet with all proceeds benefiting laminitis research.

“The horse is our hero, and there’s no better example than Barbaro,” King said.

Ed DeRosa is news editor of Thoroughbred Times