12-foot blue thoroughbred statue unveiled at Gatton Park
‘Big Lex’ statue aims to draw visitors to downtown Lexington
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - The city of Lexington and Visit Lex introduced Big Lex, a 12-foot-tall, 16-foot-long statue weighing 1,000 pounds at Gatton Park on the Town Branch in downtown Lexington.
The blue thoroughbred statue is the Visit Lex logo brought to life. It took artists a year to create the statue.
“It’s magnificent, hard to believe I mean this is typical and signifies what Lex is all about,” said David Barbour, a Lexington resident.
Park overseers hope the uniqueness of Big Lex will draw in visitors.
“I hope it becomes iconic you know kind of a must see must see photograph element of the park,” said Allison Lankford, CEO of Gatton Park Conservancy.
“Ten days we’re going to have Keeneland coming here, 220 days we’re going to have Breeders’ Cup we are the horse capital of the world and this will just show it off for us,” said Chuck Ellinger II, council-at-large.
Big Lex is already doing his job. Austin Portolese and his family were visiting from Hershey, Pennsylvania.
“We were driving down and we saw the horse and we saw the park and figured it would be kind of a cool place to check out and stop,” Portolese said.
“And the placement of it overlooking Gatton Park is spectacular couldn’t ask for anything more,” Barbour said.
One question: Will out-of-towners wonder why a thoroughbred is blue?
“Oh I’ll think they’ll know if you’re in Kentucky and you’re drinking bourbon and watching the horses you’ll know and UK blue, they’ll get it,” Barbour said.
“I mean it’s a giant toy horse so I don’t anybody will not be impressed,” said Heather Smith, designer of Big Lex. “I can’t wait to see kids come and take pictures with their families that’s really the whole purpose of him being here. You just can’t get on him. Honestly if you’re tall enough to get on him you probably shouldn’t be in the park.”
Big Lex was a champion race horse in the 1850s. He was named Lexington and was one the highest money earners during his time. He was also the fastest and the greatest sire of his era.
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