Barbaro Depicted in Controversial Statue

After Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was humanely euthanized a year ago, the Leo Kesting Gallery in New York City wants to honor the famous racehorse in a controversial way. According to widespread news reports, the art gallery wants to unveil a memorial depicting Barbaro near Central Park this spring, close to where a carriage horse died after it was spooked by a street musician’s drum and ran into a tree. However, according to a statement from the gallery, the memorial, a sculpture by artist Daniel Edwards, depicts Barbaro lying upside down, hooves in the air, with a No. 8 saddle cloth draped over his belly. The gallery wants to unveil the statue April 30 to raise awareness for legislation urging mandatory disclosure of race-related horse injuries and fatalities.

According to news reports, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation has not yet received an application for a special event permit or a temporary public art permit allowing the unveiling.

Barbaro’s owners, Gretchen and Roy Jackson, have said they are not involved with the memorial in any way.

Other sculptures by Edwards include a topless Hillary Clinton, a nude Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug, an interactive autopsy of Paris Hilton and Suri Cruise’s baby poop bronzed.