Statue of storied Sacramento stallion swiped

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Set us as preferred A life-size bronze statue of California’s first Kentucky Derby winner was stolen last week from a road median in north Sacramento.The statue of Ben Ali, a thoroughbred stallion who won the race at Churchill Downs in 1886, was reported stolen Wednesday, the Sacramento Police Department said in a press release.The statue, dedicated in 2008, stood on a concrete slab between lanes of traffic outside the Sacramento Youth Center in the 1900 block of Del Paso Boulevard.The thieves left behind only a single bronze hoof.The model for the statue once trained at Rancho Del Paso in northern Sacramento County.The Del Paso Boulevard Business Assn.

announced the theft last week in an Instagram post.“Ben Ali Stolen!!!!” it read.“He must be returned!!!”Police are looking for the thieves and the bronze racehorse.The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.

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Follow UsChristopher Goffard is an author and a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times.He shared in the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s Bell coverage and has twice been a Pulitzer finalist for feature writing, in 2007 and 2014.

His novel “Snitch Jacket” was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel.His book “You Will See Fire: A Search for Justice in Kenya,” based on his Times series, was published in 2011.

California Climate & Environment California California In 2005, there was no bigger show in L.A.than USC football.

The players were household names, celebrities crowded the sidelines, and the wins kept piling up — until ...