{"id":482869,"date":"2026-10-02T15:42:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/482869\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T15:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:42:27","slug":"why-a-stolen-bronze-horse-statue-means-more-than-metal-to-north-sacramento","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/482869\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a stolen bronze horse statue means more than metal to North Sacramento"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bronze horse statue honoring Ben Ali, a California’s first Kentucky Derby winner, has been stolen from Del Paso Boulevard in North Sacramento<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sacramento Police Department said it received a report Sept. 30 about the stolen bronze sculpture. A report was written, and police said the theft is an active investigation.<\/p>\n

The statue stood near the Sacramento Youth Center and had become a landmark for people in the area.<\/p>\n

Mina Perez, vice chair of the North Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, said the statue represented more than public art.<\/p>\n

“He represented that accomplishment of the underdog of the up and coming from this area,” Perez said.<\/p>\n

Perez said she was devastated when she learned the statue was gone.<\/p>\n

“Oh my gosh. I was called early this morning and I was in rage. I was just devastated. I was angry,” Perez said.<\/p>\n

She compared the theft to losing a member of the community.<\/p>\n

“To have this statue taken from us is like a family member being just, you know, kidnapped,” Perez said.<\/p>\n

Naomi Milton, finance director for the Sacramento Youth Center, said Ben Ali had been raised on a ranch in Del Paso Heights. She said the statue was erected to help beautify the neighborhood and had cultural significance because of its connection to the area.<\/p>\n

“The horse actually was raised on a ranch here in Del Paso Heights. And so it was something that was erected to kind of beautify the neighborhood and the cultural significance of it being from this area in particular,” Milton said.<\/p>\n

Milton said the statue was also a landmark for the youth center. Staff would use it when giving people directions, telling them to “look for the horse in the middle of the street.”<\/p>\n

The Old North Sac Partnership said the theft is another loss for a business corridor already dealing with vandalism, illegal dumping, trash and other nighttime activity affecting businesses and organizations.<\/p>\n

The partnership said those issues are separate incidents and that it is not suggesting they are connected to the statue theft.<\/p>\n

Perez also pointed to another statue that she said was taken from in front of the library a few months earlier.<\/p>\n

“I got very sad that we had to go through this again. Since a few months ago we had another woman’s statue down in front of the library that had been taken also,” Perez said.<\/p>\n

The partnership said it wants the Ben Ali statue returned, but also wants sustained attention, resources and coordination for the Del Paso Boulevard corridor.<\/p>\n

Perez said the community cannot ignore the theft.<\/p>\n

“We can’t just ignore it,” Perez said.<\/p>\n

She also urged anyone who knows where the statue is to come forward.<\/p>\n

“Anybody that knows anything to let us know. If the person that’s listening to me, you took a part of our history. You took a part of our family. If you can bring it back, we’ll find ways to fix it, to repair it,” Perez said.<\/p>\n

Sacramento police are asking anyone with information about the investigation to contact the department.<\/p>\n

Watch more from ABC10: Lincoln Hills Golf Club vandalism leaves deep ruts and tire marks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bronze horse statue honoring Ben Ali, a California’s first Kentucky Derby winner, has been stolen from Del…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-482869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}