'Larger-than-life' Secretariat monument coming to Kentucky

In addition to the horse farms, racetracks and bourbon distilleries dotting Kentucky, the state will add another destination for visitors in 2019.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that a "larger-than-life" statue of champion racehorse Secretariat is under construction in Norman, Okla., with the goal of having it in place by October to coincide with Keeneland's fall race meet.

At 1 1/2 times the size of the 1973 Triple Crown winner, the statue will sit in a traffic circle minutes from downtown Lexington, where Alexandria Drive intersects with Old Frankfort Pike. Per Maryjean Wall, writing for the Herald-Leader, Secretariat will be cast in bronze wearing the 1A saddle towel he donned while setting the current record time of 1:59.4 in the Kentucky Derby.

“It will be one of the most traveled roads into the city, in and out,” Alex G. Campbell, founder of the Triangle Foundation, told Wall, “and it’s a back road to Frankfort. I hope it will be a tourist attraction.”

Sculptor Jocelyn Russell and her husband, Michael Dubail, are working on the statue funded by the Triangle Foundation, which takes "private donations and has an impressive record of beautifying public spaces in Lexington," according to the report.

Secretariat, who died in 1989 due to laminitis, is buried at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., just fewer than 29 miles from where the statue will further immortalize the champion horse. The son of Bold Ruler set track records in each leg of the Triple Crown series, a trio of his 16 wins in 21 career starts that puts his career in the conversation when discussing the best of all time.