Statue immortalising Waverley's Melbourne Cup winner Kiwi on track to be completed by late July

The bronzing of a statue of Waverley's Melbourne Cup-winning racehorse Kiwi is nearing completion. Photo / Supplied

A statue of Melbourne Cup-winning horse Kiwi is on track to be installed in Waverley, South Taranaki, this year.

Trained by Waverley's Snow Lupton, Kiwi won the Melbourne Cup on November 1, 1983, and won the Wellington Cup the same year, a feat that has not been repeated before or since.

A life-size plasticine mould of Kiwi, with jockey Jim Cassidy on its back in full flight, was donated to Waverley by New Plymouth artist, the late Fridtjof Hanson.

South Taranaki District Council communications manager Gerard Langford said the committee in charge of completing the statue was allocated $155,000 from Waverley's masterplan arts grant to cover the cost of bronzing the statue.

Brian Rook, who heads the statue committee, said the mould was being bronzed at Heavy Metals in Lower Hutt.

Langford said the bronzing was scheduled to be completed by April or May, but there had been delays in the process. The jockey and half of the horse had been bronzed so far.

Rook said the statue would be ready to be transported back to Waverley by late July at the earliest.

The statue committee has been community fundraising for additional elements, not covered by the council grant, needed for the completion of the statue.

"We've got a substantial foundation ... that's had to be engineered and built to specifications and everything and that was about $17,000," Rook said.

Once the bronzing had been completed, the foundation for the statue would need to sit for two to three weeks to cure before the 1.5-tonne statue was placed on it.

As lighting, security cameras and landscaping were also needed for the statue, Rook said the committee needed to raise about $30,000 to $35,000 through community fundraising.

He estimated they had so far raised about $20,000 through a Melbourne Cup day put on at a local horse trainer's, and a community quiz night on July 1, with 21 teams of six registered to take part.

Once the statue was finished, it would be gifted back to Waverley town as part of the masterplan arts grant. Rook said the bronzing had not been funded by ratepayers.