Snow Lupton with his beloved Kiwi. Kiwi will be immortalised in bronze in his home turf of Waverley. Photo / Jackie Haynes
Snow Lupton with his beloved Kiwi. Kiwi will be immortalised in bronze in his home turf of Waverley. Photo / Jackie Haynes
Progress is being made on the creation and installation of a bronze statue of Kiwi, the Waverley Melbourne Cup winner.
Jacq Dwyer, secretary of the statue committee, says things are coming along nicely. "We've got some really good feedback ... the most common thing was, 'It should have been done years ago'.
It's coming up to 40 years since Kiwi strode across the finish line on November 1, 1983, in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington.
There is a book about the Snow Lupton-owned racehorse, called 'Kiwi', written by Tony Hilton, with photographs and editing by Laraine Sole. The book was published in 2004.
For the past few months, the committee has been trying to decide where to install the statue.
New Plymouth artist Fridtjof Hanson has already created the sculpture out of plasticine, and offered it to the Waverley community for free.
Kiwi, who won the Melbourne Cup in 1983. Photo / File
"It's quite amazing," says Jacq. "It's lifesize and has Jim Cassidy, the jockey, on its back. It's the scene from when it won the race, so it's in full flight, sprinting over the finish line."
While the artwork has been gifted, casting in bronze is going to cost a lot of money. Ross Wilson, well-known for his bronze casting of many local statues, including the work of the late Joan Morrell, is ready to do the job at his Marton foundry.
Local historian Laraine Sole says it's also been 150 years since the first races were held in Waverley, and Isaac Lupton, a young, unmarried man at the time, was on the first committee of the first races held in Waverley.
"So that's 150 years of the Lupton family being involved in racing, so it's quite a nice time to be putting the statue up," she says.
While there is a lot of fundraising to do, Jacq is confident of support from the South Taranaki District Council and allocation of some funds in their long term plan.
"Now it's up to the town. We do get a block of money for artwork and we have to decide how much we want to put aside for Kiwi, so the town has to decide. We're at the point where we're going to have a public meeting once long term plan meetings are over. It's up to the town to allocate the money we've been given," says Jacq. We've got a sense of duty now to make this happen."
Laraine says they want to make Waverley more of a destination, just just a place to pass through on the way to somewhere else.
New Zealand horse Kiwi finished first in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington. Photo / File
"We want people to 'stop and stay longer'," says Jacq, quoting the council slogan for the district's towns.
A site for the statue has already been decided upon, in Gully Park, next to the Main Street Cafe.
"We would like the bronzing to start at the end of August," says Jacq. "That's when Ross has his next available bracket."
Bronze ensures the statue's durability.
"It will be lit so it will be the focal point of the town."
Laraine sees this as a tribute to Anne and Snow Lupton and artist Fridtjof Hanson.
"Two All Blacks, a Junior All Black and a Melbourne Cup winner all from a little town like Waverley, that's not bad. And Olympic rower Simon Dickie." There have been other famous people from Waverley in its long history.
"Racing is synonymous with Waverley and it's the grass roots people who make it happen," says Jacq.
