Larger-than-life horse statue will now greet visitors to this Lexington park
The new Gatton Park on the Town Branch is now home to Lexington’s newest public art piece: a larger-than-life statue of legendary race horse named Lexington.
Representatives from VisitLEX, Keeneland, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and Gatton Park unveiled the new art piece on March 24. The tall, blue stallion sits near Oliver Lewis Way along the park’s Town Branch Creek bed.
“You go to Vegas, and you go the Welcome to Vegas sign. You go to Nashville and you got the mural of the wings. I said, ‘we need to have a big blue horse where people will come and they’ll get their picture taken, and they’ll post on social media,’” At-Large Council member Chuck Ellinger said Tuesday.
Ellinger put $25,000 of his office’s capital funds into the $54,000 piece. The remaining costs were paid by VisitLEX, the city’s tourism bureau.
“Initially I wanted one that was going to be all the way across Newtown Pike, like 60 feet high,” Ellinger joked. “That was my first goal, but we couldn’t do that. And we got something even better: we got two icons here with Big Lex and Gatton Park.”
The story behind the name
Lexington the horse, also known as Big Lex when shown as a blue horse, has been a local icon and mascot for the city since 2009, VisitLEX president Mary Quinn Ramer said at the unveiling. The idea for the piece has long been in the works.
“Obviously, people have for a long time said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to have a big blue horse?’ ... I kept saying ‘yes, as soon as we have the perfect spot,’” Ramer said. “And voila! We are so fortunate to be standing here in Gatton Park today.”
The horse was known in the 1800s as the fastest horse in the world, once running 4 miles in 7 minutes and 19.75 seconds. News of Lexington’s death in 1875 made the front page of the New York Times, Ramer said.
The Big Lex statue is the second large statue to be built in Gatton Park. First Impressions, formed like a maclurite fossil common to Fayette County, is a giant, climbable sculpture bearing a timeline of important local and global historic events.
Gatton Park on the Town Branch opened in August 2025 after nearly a decade of fundraising and planning, all to the total of roughly $55 million.
