Collections Sculpture at the Park Sculpture at the Park
Sculpture at the Park
Dotting the central campus of The Kentucky Horse Park are a number of memorial bronze sculptures commissioned by fine artists. Be sure to visit your favorites during your next trip.
by Edwin Bogucki
1997
Lifesize bronze
Located in the lobby of the International Museum of the Horse
The World champion Polish Arabian stallion Bask was bred by Roman Pankiewicz at the Janow Podlaski State Stud in Poland. He was foaled in 1956 and in 1963 was imported to the United States by Dr. Eugene Lacroix of Lasma Arabians, in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1964, at age 8, Bask was named U.S. National Champion Stallion and U.S. National Top Ten Three-Gaited (Park) Horse, an accomplishment never repeated in the Arabian show world. At stud, Bask produced more champion Arabian horses than any other Arabian stallion. Bask died in 1979 and is buried at the Park’s Champions Cemetery.
About the Artist:
Born in 1932 to Polish immigrant parents, Edwin Bogucki was raised in Racine, Wisconsin where, as a young boy he displayed an uncommon talent for fine art and a particularly intense interest in horses. Although his parents tried to discourage his aspiring talents in the hope of his pursuing a more “lucrative” career, Bogucki maintained his love for art and dedicated himself to learning as much as possible on his own.
The artist’s early experience with self teaching turned into a lifelong commitment to purposefully avoid formal art education. Believing that he must maintain the purity and uniqueness of his ideas, Bogucki sought and accepted instruction from only three people. The first was Sister Monica, a high school teacher who had been a pupil of Mestrovic. Another was painter, Alex Dziguraki, with whom Bogucki spent an afternoon of intense instruction concerning his palette. The most influential person, however, was Harry C. Thompson, an artist that Bogucki met in 1953.
In 1969 Bogucki made the decision to leave his job in commercial art and pursue a full time career in fine art. Working in both oil and pastel, the artist did many portraits of horses, dogs and children. In 1962 a commission for a bronze portrait of a Shetland pony gave Bogucki his first opportunity to work in that medium.
Since those early years Bogucki’s main body of work has been made up of commissioned portraits of horses and people. His highly sought after bronze portraits number 35 to date while his pastel and oil portraits amount to well over a hundred. He has also done many limited edition bronzes and non-commissioned oil paintings. Recently, the artist has devoted a large part of his time to other animal species, of particular interest has been the lowland gorilla. With each new piece his unusual talent has showcased a versatility rarely encountered in contemporary artists.
Today, Bogucki lives in Racine County, Wisconson, where he and Shirley maintain five acres of Wisconsin woodland on which their house/studio complex was built. Designed by the artist himself, the property includes a barn and facilities for Bogucki’s own horses which serve as models for his work. The Bogucki’s have four children.
Luis Sanguino
2002
Life-size bronze
Born in 1962, Bret Hanover was possibly the greatest pacing Standardbred in history, winning 62 of his 68 races. He was born at Hanover Shoe Farms in Pennsylvania, and was the son of the great sire, Adios out of the mare Brenna Hanover. He was one of only nine horses in history to win the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers.
Bret Hanover was retired as the fastest and richest standardbred in harness racing history. He went to stud at Castleton Farm in Lexington, where he immediately became one of the most in-demand breeding stallions in the country. He is remembered as one of the best broodmare sires of the century.
Bret Hanover died in November of 1992 at Castleton Farm where he had lived for 26 years. He was buried Monday, November 23, 1992 in a newly created Champions Cemetery at the Kentucky Horse Park. This bronze statue by Sanguino previously stood outside of Castleton’s farm office, and now marks his grave.
Bruce Davidson’s Individual Gold Medal in the 1974 World Three Day Event Championships at Burghley, England riding Irish Cap gave the United States the right to host the next World Championships. The State of Kentucky bid for and received the right to produce the 1978 World Championships at the new Kentucky Horse Park.
The 1978 World Championships saw Davidson again capture the Individual World Champion title, this time aboard Might Tango. Thus began a record setting six times winning the Kentucky Rolex Three Day Event.
Eagle Lion was not Bruce’s mount for any of these wins, but the dark brown Irish Sport Horse gelding, bred in Ireland in 1985 by Patricia Nicholson, began his development as a champion eventer at the Rolex Kentucky events in 1992 and 1993.
In 1995, Bruce and Eagle Lion became the first Americans to win the Badminton Horse Trials in England. Begun in 1949, Badminton remains to this day THE event every Event rider aspires to win.
Bruce was the US Eventing Association’s Rider of the Year first in 1975 and then for 14 consecutive years, 1982-1995. He won the Individual Silver Medal in the 1975 Pan American Games as a member of the Silver Medal Team and the Individual Gold Medal in the 1995 Pan Am Games.
A five time Olympian, Davidson was a member of the 1972 Silver Medal Team, the 1976 and 1984 Gold Medal Teams, the 1988 Team and the 1996 Silver Medal Team. He represented the United States in five World Championships and in addition to his two Individual Gold Medals in 1974 and 1978, won the Individual Silver Medal at the 1990 World Championships.
The sculpture was a gift to the Kentucky Horse Park from George Strawbridge, owner of Eagle Lion, Rolex Watch USA, Patrick and Joan Bergmann, Phelps and Sharon Witter, and many of Bruce’s loyal supporters.
About the artist:
Jean Clagett, born in 1945, spent her life with horses of all breeds and disciplines. Her first bronze sculpture in 1985 was Desert Wine, runner up in the Kentucky Derby. From there she has done horses of all breeds for clients and is in collections around the world, and specializes in doing specific horses and riders.
Now living in Upperville, VA, she has her studio and shop at home on a horse farm with her own retired Thoroughbred mare that raced in France, a Paint pleasure gelding, and a Connemara Pony mare which she rides and drives.
Gwen Reardon
2002
Life-size bronze
“Frisky Filly” can be seen with another Reardon sculpture “The Promise” decorating the flower garden in the middle of the entrance to the Visitor Information Center at the Park.
About the Artist:
Horses were a part of Ms. Reardon’s life from birth as her father was a horse trainer and equitation instructor. At age five Ms. Reardon became the state equitation champion. She grew to prominence winning rides at major shows including being the youngest competitor to win the ladies championship at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
In her free time while showing horses Reardon developed her artistic skills drawing and sketching the horses around her. Eventually she developed a habit of making small wax sculptures she used in the composition of her paintings. While she did not cast any of these early wax sculptures, there was one for every painting. She has received many awards for her work.
Ms. Reardon is a Full Member and currently serves on the Board of the American Academy of Equine Art, Inc. She lives outside of Lexington, Kentucky on a small farm where she continues to ride and enjoy her horses.
The most publicly visible collection of Gwen Reardon’s work is in Lexington, Kentucky’s downtown Thoroughbred Park. The park, is a tribute to the thoroughbred race horse, and features thirteen sculptures. Seven life size bronze race horses and jockeys rush dramatically to the finish line. Also in the park are brood mares and foals and a sculpture depicting the great stallion Lexington.
Veryl Goodnight
Bronze
Herbert Haseltine
1948
Bronze
The Man o’ War statue, sculpted by Herbert Haseltine (1877-1962), stands on a pedestal just inside the entrance to the park grounds. He was foaled in March of 1917 at August Belmont’s Nursery Stood just north of Lexington, and was considered the greatest thoroughbred of the 20th century. Man o’ War won 20 of 21 races, with his only loss ironically coming at the hands of a horse named Upset.
After retiring from the track to Sam Riddle’s Faraway Farm in Lexington, he became one of the top breeding stallions country, and was the sire of the Triple Crown winning War Admiral.
The Man o’ War statue first stood over his grave on the grounds of Faraway Farm, where he died in 1948. Both his grave and the statue were moved to the Kentucky Horse Park in 1977.
About the Artist:
Born in Rome, Italy, the son of the wealthy American landscape painter William Stanley Haseltine (1835-1900), Haseltine studied at Harvard University. After graduating in 1899, he went to Munich, Germany to study drawing at the Academy and then to the Academie Julian in Paris, France where he studied painting. Haseltine chose to make Paris his home for the next thirty-five years until the German occupation of France during World War II. He moved to the US where he remained until 1947 at which time he returned to France.
Haseltine sculpted a variety of animals but is best known for his equestrian sculptures, most notably the 1934 life-size statue of the thoroughbred race horse Man O’ War at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. He replicated many of his large works in table-top sizes.
The author of a number of books on animalier art, Hazeltine was well connected in American upper-class society and did a three-year project to create a work for heiress Barbara Hutton.
Herbert Haseltine died in Paris, in 1962.
Brian Maughan
1997
Life-size bronze
Misty of Chincoteague stands as a tribute to the famous Chincoteague pony (Chincoteague, Virginia) depicted in Marguerite Henry’s children books. It is located near the park’s playground.
Roxie Highland
George F. Yostel
1939
bronze
Roxie Highland was a famous American Saddlebred Horse who is buried on the Park and the Statue is located outside of the American Saddle Horse Museum.
About the Artist
George F. Yostel was educated and at the Kunstgewerbe Schule and received his Masters of Fine Arts Degree at the Art Academy of Munich in Munich, Germany. He came to Cincinnati, Ohio through the sponsorship of a company that specialized in ecclesiastical art such as chalices, ciboria and crucifixes. He eventually opened his own studio. Yostel was active in the U.S. Cavalry and later owned his own horses.
Edwin Bogucki
2004
Life-size bronze
The Edwin Bogucki Secretariat bronze at the Kentucky Horse Park depicts the incredible thoroughbred race horse that captured thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown and won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths. In this life-size statue, he is being led into the winner’s circle after his win in the Kentucky Derby by groom, Eddie Sweat with jockey Ron Turcotte in the irons. The bronze weighs 1,500 pounds and is the centerpiece of the Secretariat Plaza at the Kentucky Horse Park.
About the Artist:
see “Bask ++” above.
Secretariat
Jim Reno
1992
Life-Size Bronze
Sculpted by Jim Reno, the bronze statue of Triple Crown winner Secretariat (1970-1989) stands at the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center (Thoroughbred Retirement Center) on the Kentucky Horse Park grounds. Reno’s bronze depicts Secretariat as an older sire, and was completed shortly before his death.
About the Artist:
Reno was educated at John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana, under David Rubins. This experience strengthened his appreciation of classical design and other values that play an integral part in his sculpture.
Reno’s experience with horses, refined over many years as a cutting horse trainer, has enabled him to understand the anatomy and mind of his horse subjects
