By Katie Petrunyak
LEXINGTON, KY–The majority of the trophies that were stolen just over a month ago from trainer Wesley Ward's home in Versailles, Kentucky have been recovered. According to the Versailles Police Department's Assistant Chief Rob Young, one individual was charged with receiving stolen property and is now in custody.
On the morning of Feb. 8, 2022, a thief walked off with 14 trophies, including many that Ward received from the Royal Ascot meet, but they did not take any other valuables from the home such as electronics and several other trophies were left behind.
Ward was informed of his recovered trophies on Thursday.
Update: Thank you to all who retweeted about my family's stolen trophies. They have been recovered by the Versailles PD and the criminals have been arrested! The criminals have ruined the trophies to get the precious metals, but we are proud to get justice served! pic.twitter.com/c6rbnpbRUm
— Riley Ward (@riley_ward1) March 10, 2022
“We got a call from detective Steve Sparkman of the Versailles Police Department and he brought me in and said they had recovered the majority of the trophies,” Ward said. “There are still a few missing. Those trophies are not worth anything monetarily, so at least we got them back and the memories are still there.”
Assistant Chief Young said that seven of the missing trophies have been recovered.
“It's not the outcome that we wanted because they were heavily damaged,” he admitted. “Versailles police worked with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and the Lexington Police Department and we recovered them in Lexington on Wednesday. The case is ongoing. We're trying to recover additional trophies as well as identify all parties involved.”
Due to the ongoing status of the case, Young could not share any further information on the subject in custody.
Ward said that while the recovered trophies were burnt down in order to obtain any precious metals, he added that they were still recognizable and the Royal Ascot insignia could still be seen. When the trophies first went missing, Ward had said he would inquire about seeking replacement trophies, but now says he wishes to keep the recovered trophies despite their damage.
“We'll keep what we have,” he said. “We'll have to dust them off and clean them up, but we're happy to have them back.
Ward credits his son, Riley, for his hand in recovering the trophies by reaching out to various local news outlets including WKYT and LEX18NEWS.
“My son has been there for all these wins and was on the platform when we got all these trophies,” he said. “It really hit him hard so he's the one that reached out to the news outlets. I can't thank them enough because according to Detective Sparkman, that's one of the biggest reasons they were found is because they got a tip from someone and there was a lot of loose talk I guess, so thank God for my boy. He's the one that recovered them.”
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