NORMAN, Ok.- A very special horse will be honored Saturday, October 12 at Keeneland. Spectrum News 1's Jonathon Gregg first told you about this remarkable project in February, but now the end of the road is near for Secretariat's special honor. We wanted to remind you how this project first began.
Long before the might of our modern cities surrounded us like moving monuments, before our lives were driven by powerful machines, the original horsepower tamed the West. In Norman, Oklahoma sculptor Jocelyn Russell is shaping an animal known for its strength and speed. It’s the horse that tamed the Triple Crown 46 years ago, American Thoroughbred, Secretariat. “I love it all. I really do,” Russell told Spectrum News 1.
“I try to bring everything into the whole mix and capture that moment. It’s challenging and emotional,” Russell added.
The Colorado native has been commissioned by the Triangle Foundation of Lexington to design and create the massive monument. It’s believed, once finished, it will be the largest statue of Secretariat in the world. From start to finish the project will have taken more than a year to complete. “Middle of June is when I got the call. I was in Hawaii...do you want to sculpt secretariat?” Russell recalls.
The monument is BIG, nearly eleven feet from the ground to the top of jockey Ron Turcotte’s helmet. Once the likeness is complete it will be cast in bronze and weigh an estimated 4,500 pounds. It will then hitch a ride 900 miles to Lexington and be installed in a traffic circle on Old Frankfort Pike Rd.
“Secretariat is just iconic,” Russell said.