Sure-to-be-Controversial Barbaro Memorial Statue Will Be Unveiled in New York

This information is from a press release. According to the Blood-Horse web site, Barbaro's owners have issued a statement saying they are not connected with this effort to memorialize (and politicize) their horse. To clarify the information below, I spoke with the gallery today and the unveiling of the near-lifesize sculpture will indeed take place at Central Park South and the piece can be viewed there for a period of time before it is moved to the gallery in the Meatpacking District. During Preakness week, the piece will be on display in Washington, DC.

This is the first of what will probably be several posts about the first anniversary of Barbaro's euthanasia.

New York (January 23, 2008) – Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro is the subject of a statue and namesake of a proposal urging mandatory disclosure of race-related horse fatalities and injuries. A proposal titled “Barbaro’s Law” will coincide with the unveiling of Barbaro’s statue at the Central Park South location where a carriage horse was tragically killed last year.

“The Barbaro Memorial” by controversial sculptor Daniel Edwards, courtesy of Leo Kesting Gallery, will be unveiled April 30th, the same week as the 134th Kentucky Derby.”The Barbaro Memorial” depicts the thoroughbred champion in the winner’s circle on his back with his number 8 saddle cloth draping his belly, and represents his inability to stand on his feet due to the debilitating laminitis which followed the shattered ankle he suffered in the 2006 Preakness Stakes. Barbaro was put down for his injuries January 29th of last year.

Edwards’s past sculptures include a nude Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug, an interactive autopsy of Paris Hilton with removable organs, and a war dead Prince Harry clutching the cameo locket of his late mother Princess Diana.