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Let’s be honest, whether there’s a nice statue at a course isn’t going to make the difference between having a nice day at the races or not, but they can be a nice feature that evoke memories of past races at a particular venue. There’s currently a lovely statue of Snow Fairy at Leopardstown, the same Snow Fairy that ran twice at Leopardstown, winning one Irish Champion Stakes and finishing second in another. There’s been numerous horses who have achieved more at the track, but fair play to the owners for stumping up the cash and that’s up to them, she was a great mare.
When it was revealed there was to be a Hurricane Fly statue there I’m sure most Irish racing fans were glad at the thought of walking in past the Fly on all the big National Hunt days, such were the memories he created there. I was there for his first and last races there and countless others in between. The appreciation for him when he won his fifth and final Irish Champion Hurdle was the best I’ve witnessed after any race, and he always got a great reception there.
Again, I would say well done to the owners for stumping up the money for the statue but I can’t help but feel they’ve wasted it. If you haven’t seen it, the statue is of a malnourished Fly crashing into an overgrown hurdle.
I think anyone walking past on entry will be giving it a glancing look and thinking ‘poor old Hurricane’, rather than stopping to think of any one of those great victories he had at the course.
Not the best but not as bad as the Andy Murray one…..
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
Think this link (if it works) shows What the sculpture was aiming for, but seems to somehow have made it look like he’s running loose and heading for a tumble.
It’s not how most would want to remember him.For a lasting tribute to a great horse like The Hurricane I would cut my losses take it away from the racecourse and commission Philip Blacker, who did an amazing statue of Persian Punch at Newmarket’s Rowley mile and of course Best Mate, for another statue that will do him justice for generations to come.
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...The Fly statue looks odd but sometimes those odd bits of art are the ones that end up becoming treasured. I’d say it was bolder than a bog-standard likeness – although nothing wrong with those and I’m assuming the effects conveyed in the Fly statue were deliberate rather than accidental.
Best Mate at Cheltenham
Not many people about Nathan.
I’d love to see that statue. Maybe I’ll get to Cheltenham one day.
Jac
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...The Best Mate statue looks much better where it is now; I’m afraid I never liked it where it was before with a sort of stable effect next to it; felt it looked a bit twee and made me think of those life sized horses in shops that display saddles etc. I can now appreciate it more.
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